Environmental Events
Council supports and promotes a number of events each year with the support of the Environment Levy. These events include Schools Environment Day, Earth Hour, World Environment Day, National Tree Day and more.
The events help educate and inform the community about environmental issues of significance in the Southern Highlands.
Click on the Read More link for each event to find out more.
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Clean Up Australia Day
First Sunday of March yearly.
Clean Up Australia Day inspires and empowers communities to clean up, fix up and conserve our environment, not just for one day, but every day.
Earth Hour
Usually the last Saturday of March.
Each year to celebrate Earth Hour Wingecarribee Shire Council runs an event to raise awareness on the importance of caring for our planet, be it, learning how your family can improve their recycling habits, planting native plants in your garden, or becoming an advocate for our local environment. In 2025 we will run a planting day event at Bundanoon's new dog park to help reconnect areas of Southern Highlands Shale Woodland (SHSW) which is a critically Endangered Ecological Community (EEC) and unique to the Highlands. We will also be planting Casuarina species essential for Glossy Black Cockatoos.
World Environment Day
5 June yearly.
World Environment Day is an international day of environmental awareness and action. Due to the ongoing unpredictably of COVID-19, Council has decided to refrain from organising any World Environment Day activities in 2021.
Plastic Free July
Plastic Free July is a yearly campaign designed to get us thinking more about the abundance of single use plastic in our lives.
Biodiversity Month (September)
This year for Biodiversity Month, Council is celebrating its local citizen scientists through an exhibition at the Civic Centre, Moss Vale. The exhibition showcases photographs submitted through a citizen science project called Southern Highlands Nature Map. This project enables the community to submit observations of biodiversity to help collectively build our understanding of biodiversity within the Southern Highlands.
Threatened Species Day
7 September yearly
Threatened Species Day is a day is when we turn the spotlight on native plants, animals, and ecosystems that are under threat and reflect on how we can protect them into the future. The day also celebrates the amazing work that is being done to save them by passionate conservationists, researchers, volunteers, and community experts.
National Bird Week
Usually in the second last week of October.
Wingecarribee Shire Council usually runs a few events around National Bird Week with 2025 hosting a birdy breakfast, bird count and screening a bird film as part of the Earth Flix: Cinema 4 Change films.
Past Events
Below are some examples of previous Environment events that have occurred within the Southern Highlands.
In 2020, Council is partnered with the NSW Government’s Saving our Species program to deliver the Walk See Play initiative. This self-directed initiative asked participants to keep an eye out for and photograph biodiversity tracks, traces and habitat features while they walked along trails in bushland reserves and national parks.
Sat 8 & Sun 9 September 2020
This event was to help us gain a better understanding of the local glossy black-cockatoo population by heading out for a weekend of bird watching! By surveying for glossies across the landscape within a set timeframe, we can get an accurate measure of the local population. We collected a snapshot of the glossy black-cockatoo population by heading out on your private property or local bushland reserve anywhere between Bullio and Bungonia.
In 2019, Saving our Species scientists organised a Glossy Black Cockatoo count. This event asked citizen scientists to survey for Glossy black cockatoos, with a focus on the Great Western Wildlife Corridor. The survey assisted the scientists with getting a better understanding about Glossy black cockatoo populations within the Southern Highlands.
The Southern Highlands has the largest koala population in southern NSW, with over 3000 koalas calling the region home.
Saturday 9 September 2020
To celebrate Threatened Species Day, the Fitzroy Falls Visitor Centre hosted a presentation by Joe Stammers from the Southern Highlands Koala Conservation Project, who discussed how we can all work together to ensure there is a healthy and breeding koala population in the region for many years to come.
To celebrate Threatened Species Day in 2018, Council staff hosted a presentation about koalas and the Southern Highlands Conservation Project.
Friday April 7 2020
Southern Highlanders were invited to a guided walk through Penrose State Forest. We joined staff from the Office of Environment and Heritage and Penrose Swamp Conservation Group as we looked out for some of the rare plants and animals that call it home.
In 2019, Council organised a screening of the film 2040 to a sell-out audience at the Empire Cinema in Bowral. The film was followed by a Q&A forum with a group of local panellists.
About 2040
2040 is a hybrid feature documentary that looks to the future, but is vitally important NOW!
The 2040 journey began with award-winning director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film). Motivated by concerns about the planet his 4-year-old daughter would inherit, Damon embarked on a global journey to meet innovators and changemakers in the areas of economics, technology, civil society, agriculture, education and sustainability. Drawing on their expertise, he sought to identify the best solutions, available to us now, that would help improve the health of our planet and the societies that operate within it. From marine permaculture to decentralised renewable energy projects, he discovered that people all over the world are taking matters into their own hands.
This journey is the central premise for the documentary ‘2040’, a story of hope that looks at the very real possibility that humanity could reverse global warming and improve the lives of every living thing in the process. It is a positive vision of what ‘could be’, instead of the dystopian future we are so often presented.
Further Information
For more information visit: whatsyour2040.com