Meet Sakshi a North Sydney Bushcare volunteer and discover four reasons why giving a few hours each month helps protect local bushland, wildlife and your own wellbeing.
In North Sydney, volunteering is part of everyday life, with 1 in 6 North Sydneysiders giving their time through organised groups. More than 140 local volunteers help care for North Sydney’s bushland through Council’s 13 Bushcare groups, protecting some of the area’s last remaining pockets of native habitat.
One of those volunteers is Sakshi, convenor of the Forsyth Park Bushcare Group in Neutral Bay.
Forsyth Park is a small but significant pocket of bushland, an Angophora Foreshore Forest set in a gully between Yeo and Bent Streets. The Bushcare group has been rehabilitating this site since 1996, helping protect one of the only remaining areas of bushland in the centre of the North Sydney local government area. The reserve also plays an important role as part of a north–south wildlife corridor, with volunteer sightings confirming the presence of species including the Tawny Frogmouth, Barn Owl and White‑throated Nightjar.
For Sakshi, there are many reasons she keeps showing up. Here are four.
What do you get out of volunteering that you don’t get anywhere else?
Beyond just helping out, volunteering, especially in Bushcare, offers a unique form of reciprocal healing. When you are at a low point, the world can feel small and overwhelming. Volunteering forces a shift in perspective. You are no longer just a person with a problem. You become a vital part of an ecosystem.
Unlike a paid job, there is no performance review other than the health of the plants. It provides a sense of quiet agency and the realisation that your hands can physically repair a small corner of the world. Feeling widely connected to the scale of nature provides grounding that office work or solo hobbies rarely touch.
What does a typical Bushcare session involve and what do you enjoy most?
As a convenor, you know the session is as much about the people as it is about the plants. A typical session involves:
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Site assessment: looking at the ‘front line’ where the weeds meet the native bush and deciding where to focus today’s energy.
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Tactical work: this is the methodical and almost meditative process of weed removal, clearing space so native plants can breathe.
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Knowledge exchange: identifying native seedlings that are just starting to poke through, teaching others how to distinguish them from invasive mimics.
What is most enjoyable is seeing the moment when a volunteer realises that the bush that looks messy is actually a highly organised and complex community. There is also deep satisfaction in the before and after. Looking back at a slope cleared of weeds reveals the potential for an entirely new canopy to grow.
It is also a reminder of how vast natural systems are, how plants interact and respond to one another and how people who pay attention can grow alongside them.
What would you say to someone in North Sydney who is unsure where to start?
Just show up once.
In North Sydney, there is a strong professional and fast‑paced culture, and people often feel they need to be experts before they begin. That is not the case with Bushcare.
No experience is the best experience. Volunteers are taught how to identify weeds and native species on site.
It is a no‑pressure environment. Giving three hours a month still makes a difference. Those are three hours the bush did not have before.
It is also a mental reset. Especially for people who are burnt out or spend much of their time on screens, there is something grounding about dirt under your fingernails.
What makes volunteering in North Sydney feel worthwhile?
North Sydney is a place of extreme contrasts. We are surrounded by concrete, glass and the roar of the city, yet we have these pockets of remnant pockets of bushland that have survived since before the city was built.
Volunteering here feels like protecting an island. Because the area is so developed, these patches of green are the only corridors left for local wildlife. When you work here, you aren't just weeding. You are ensuring that the vast and magnificent nature you love isn't completely erased by the skyline. You’re keeping the soul of the harbour alive.