Women's Environmental Leadership Australia - WELA

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Women's Environmental Leadership Australia - WELA

Together, we’re creating a ripple effect of diverse, empowered, and connected voices driving meaningful systemic change.

WELA is a community connecting, influencing, funding, and building the capacity of women and gender-diverse changemakers so that together we transform Australia’s response to our environmental and climate crises. Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA) is a community connecting, influencing, funding, and building the capacity of women and gender-diverse changemakers so that together we transform Australia’s response to our environmental and climate crises. We deliver transformative leadership programs, foster strong networks, fund women and gender-diverse-led climate and nature projects through our Giving Circle, and advocate for gender-aware solutions in policy, investment and action. Our vision is a future where diverse leadership drives bold, inclusive and effective climate and environmental solutions—centred on care, collaboration and community.

08/10/2026

For Wadawurrung leader Sarah Eccles, "standing strong" isn't an abstract idea. It’s a daily cultural responsibility. ⁠
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In this episode of There Will Be Dancing, Sarah explores why real care for Country goes deeper than modern land management. ⁠
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It’s about kinship, responsibility, and listening to the knowledge systems that have cared for this land for thousands of years. ⁠
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Listen to "Caring for Country" via the link below:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2597602/episodes/19042912-caring-for-country-with-sarah-eccles

30/09/2026

Did you know there are lots of different ways to engage with WELA?⁠
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You might want to build your leadership, connect with other changemakers, get involved in advocacy, contribute to collective giving, share your experience, or simply stay connected to the community.⁠
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WELA 101 is a free, interactive introduction to this ecosystem. ⁠
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You’ll meet the team and other community members while exploring the opportunities that can support and deepen your changemaking.⁠
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🗓️ Wednesday 21 October 2026⁠
🕐 12–1pm AEDT⁠
📍 Online via Zoom⁠
🔗 Register via the link below

https://events.humanitix.com/wela101-46g3yr37

24/09/2026

How do you make progress when working with people you disagree with?⁠
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No space in our movement is immune to tension, whether navigating relationships between grassroots groups or bridging ideological divides. And knowing how to navigate that tension is a skill. ⁠
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Join environmental leader and former CEO of Australian Conservation Foundation, Kelly O’Shanassy, and WELA CEO Victoria McKenzie-McHarg for our next Tools for Changemakers workshop, 'Unlikely Allies'. ⁠
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We’ll explore how to collaborate across difference while holding ground on what matters most.⁠
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We’ll also explore how power and gender dynamics can shape collaboration, and what changes when you’re working with an unlikely ally. ⁠
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🗓 Tuesday 29 October⁠
🕚 12:00–1:30pm AEST⁠
📍 Online via Zoom⁠
🎟 Register now via link below

https://events.humanitix.com/tools-for-changemakers-unlikely-allies

23/09/2026

To make climate action happen in local government, council changemakers need to be equipped, resourced, and well-networked.

Alongside the Eastern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (EAGA), we have built a program for exactly this: equipping women and gender-diverse leaders working in or with Victorian local government with confidence, capability and the connections they need to amplify climate ambition and action.

Applications close Sunday 8 November.

Is this you? Apply today!

Know someone who does this work? Tag them in the comments, or send them the post.

https://wela.org.au/programs/victorian-local-government-intensive/

22/09/2026

What can a school of fish, a dolphin, an orca and a great white teach us about making change?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

At Surfers for Climate's Water Women campout, we explored Bill Moyer's Four Roles of Social Change through an ocean lens, looking at the different ways people contribute to collective change.

The key idea? There’s no hierarchy between the roles. Movements need different kinds of changemakers, and we can move between roles depending on what a moment calls for.

Try mapping the roles across your own team, campaign or movement!

Thanks to Surfers for Climate for having us, and to everyone at Water Women who brought their experience, curiosity and care to the conversation.

Workshop led by WELA's Cherry Muddle alongside Jess Bell, with session design supported by Kara Virik.

Which role resonates most with you? Drop an emoji in the comments! 🐟🐬🐋🦈

21/09/2026

What can we learn from the people who came before us?⁠
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A lot, especially when it comes to the work of creating change.⁠
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Intergenerational learning gives us more than knowledge. It connects us to experience, perspective and hard-won lessons that can help us navigate the challenges of leadership and changemaking.⁠
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In this episode of There Will Be Dancing, Karen Alexander reflects on her own experiences of leadership, change and finding a path forward. Women's Agenda have pulled together a few of the ideas that stayed with us.⁠
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Because we don’t have to start from scratch. We can learn from those who’ve gone before, while making our own paths too.⁠
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Listen to the full episode via the link below and plug into the wisdom of seasoned leaders.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2597602/episodes/19517088-starting-things-with-karen-alexander

17/09/2026

This week’s doom and gloom news about AI made us think of a tree.
And an article written by WELA's Kara Lena Virik, with Jens Benöhr and Constanza López, about the colonial history hidden in the names we give plants.

The race to build AI and the colonial race to catalogue the natural world might seem worlds apart. But they share a familiar question: who gets to name what comes next?

We see the same question in climate leadership, too. Whose knowledge gets treated as expertise? Whose ways of seeing are considered legitimate? And what might become possible when we make space for more than one way of knowing?

Shaping the future isn’t only about who makes the decisions. It’s also about whose knowledge gets to shape the story of what’s possible.

Read 'Plants by Any Other Name' via the link below.
https://edgeeffects.net/decolonizing-plants/

15/09/2026

This month’s Bowerbird newsletter features Erika Hamilton, Executive Director at the Arid Lands Environment Centre on Arrernte Country in Mparntwe/Alice Springs.

She’s sharing four things shaping her thinking right now: something to read, watch, listen to and do.

Erika and the ALEC team were also recent recipients of a WELA Giving Circle grant. Their $5,000 of flexible funding supported an evidence-based report exploring extreme heat, climate adaptation and climate justice across Central Australia.

Our next Giving Circle grant round is now open, with four $5,000 unrestricted grants available to organisations led by women and gender-diverse people working for positive change for our climate and environment.

Applications close this Friday. Find out more and apply at https://givingcircle.wela.org.au/apply

14/09/2026

What started with tea, biscuits and a few friends has just won a global innovation prize.⁠
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We’re celebrating Eezu Tan, co-founder of Climate Writers and a WELA Giving Circle member.⁠
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From those early gatherings, Climate Writers has grown into a national community helping young people turn climate concern into civic action.⁠
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As a Giving Circle member, Eezu is also part of a community backing grassroots organisations to grow their impact - which makes this moment especially worth celebrating.⁠
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We love spotlighting changemakers in our community, especially those who remind us that big change can start small.

10/09/2026

Sometimes the hardest part of creating change is continuing when you’re not sure it will work.

This week’s UNEP report brought some sobering news: even the most optimistic pathway now sees global heating peak well above the 1.5°C goal. It’s the kind of news that can make fear feel like a reasonable reason to stop.

But the report also makes clear that the path back to 1.5°C is still open - if we move fast enough.

Fear doesn’t have to disappear before we act. We can be afraid, uncertain and still choose to use our power in service of the future we want.

What are you choosing to keep showing up for?

Address

210 Lonsdale Street

3000

Opening Hours

Monday	09:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	12:00 - 17:00
Wednesday	09:00 - 17:00
Thursday	09:00 - 17:00
Friday	09:00 - 17:00

Website

http://www.wela.org.au/

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