Bushcare and reveg: A look at what’s been keeping Tom busy in western Vic

Over the past few months, I’ve been enjoying spending time at a number of project sites around western Victoria. A lot of my time has been has been spent in the Cobboboonee National Park looking for and treating woody weeds with the NGT bushcare team (see previous update here). We’re continuing to find large numbers of pine wildlings in parts of the native forest, and have joked that we could open a Christmas tree side hustle!

In the same geographical area, we’re also gearing up to fence construction at NGT’s Mt Vandyke. The reserve’s predator-proof fence will be built in early 2022, so I’ve been busy lining up materials and contractors for site prep and construction. Look out for more details on this in future editions of the newsletter.

The final project I have been working on is a five hectare revegetation area at Walker Swamp Restoration Reserve. As mentioned in a previous post, thanks to the generosity and foresight of Melbourne University and PhD candidate Ella Plumanns Pouton, NGT has secured a large number of seedlings to be planted at this site next winter. Since our September update on this, we have now found the seedlings a temporary home until planting! The team at Arborline nursery in Hamilton has very kindly offered to house and nurture the seedlings until conditions are right for planting next year. In the meantime, I’ve undertaken a weed assessment of the site, and begun weed treatment. I have also been gathering fencing materials from our other reserves to reuse here, but I’m still on the lookout for a few more eight foot pine posts – get in touch if you know of a stash that could be recycled!

Once again, a huge thanks to Ella and her team at Melbourne Uni, and Keith, Samantha, Kirsty, and their team at Arborline nursery.

The seedlings for NGT’s Walker Swamp are proudly supplied by Melbourne University and housed by Arborline.