Taralga is a sleepy country town, a long way from the big issues, and nowhere more tranquil than its picturesque cemetery. Last month IVP joined an energetic bunch of local volunteers lead by Laurie to pour the concrete on a toilet block, long campaigned for as a community amenity (Stonequarry is 4km away in the countryside with sweeping views down the valley; no such facility has kept many elderly from attending the funerals of their friends, neighbors and relatives). Just next door is evidence of the IVP project to rehabilitate a patch of woodland serving as an island home to birds, animals and plants in a sea of pasture. We are gradually winning over our co-members on the local committee that oversights the whole reserve, to the value of what we do, alongside the equally valuable tasks of caring for the up to 150 year graves of generations of families drawn to this district from settlement in the 19th century. We now have common cause on improving the maintenance practices of the Shire Council that has formal responsibility in an ecologically responsible way, and a selling point for the extraordinarily visionary Great Eastern Ranges Initiative (in community level landscape conservation) that supports us. The concrete pour was a true bonding experience!