As part of the BICA’s intention of restoring and protecting our local ecosystem, in 2025 we decided to tackle the worrying European wasp situation in the Environmental Living Zone located in Melbourne.

On Saturday 11th, a bunch of people of all ages met at Julie’s in Catani for a talk, the Secret Life of Soil, presented by Diana Gentu.

You can take a deep dive through the BICA Newsletter archives dating all the way back to 1979. Explore our history and see some of the beautiful handwritten newsletters from the early years.

Our neighbourly morning tea get-together on the third Saturday of each month moves in December to a celebratory end-of-year early evening.

Thank you to Yarra RiverKeeper Charlotte L. Skerrett for her presentation, Christine Cummings for filming and Michael Dempsey for editing.

On Sunday 23rd May at 10am a group of 14 local Benders headed off from the corner of Lower Catani Boulevard and Henley Road and walked around 17km to the Nillumbik Estate, where we all gathered for a well earned dinner.

On Wednesday the 7th April 2021 BICA Planning Sub-Committee met with Nillumbik Shire Council Councillors Rosa ZouZoulas and acting CEO Vince Lombardi along with Ben Ramcharan.

On Wednesday the 7th April 2021 Frank and Michael from BICA along with Anthony from RTBC Co-op met with Melbourne Water to discuss the application for a Solar Farm development at Melbourne Water’s Winneke site.

As our monthly Cafe Benders has been a non-event for well over a year, we decided it was time to pack a rug and picnic basket full of goodies, to eat and drink and join friends and neighbours for a very long awaited community gathering of our wonderful community.

Local Benders banded together and went searching for any rubbish in canoes.

There was some fun mixed in with good rewarding work at the same time. This was a very productive day for our local community volunteers, and its very rewarding looking after our beautiful bush.

On the 7th December 2020 BICA Planning Sub-Committee met with Nillumbik Shire Council's Newest Councillor Ben Ramcharan, to take a tour around the Bend of Islands and share why the ELZ is so important.

Guest speaker at BICA AGM, is ecologist Craig Cleeland who shared his extensive knowledge on local frogs and the results of his recent surveys including an update on the results of the Frog Census which was conducted in May 2019 and which some BICA members were involved with in.

Welcome to Australia’s Secret Suburb, Bend of Islands, where No Pets or Fences are Allowed - Dani Giannopoulos

See the Full Domain Article from March 7th 2020.