Volunteers return the Yam Daisy to Eaglehawk Waterhole for National Tree Day
Planting season at NGT’s Eaglehawk Waterhole kicked off on Friday 23rd August, with our first volunteer planting event of the year, for National Tree Day. You can read more about NGT’s first restoration reserve Eaglehawk Waterhole here, purchased in 2013 with a land addition in 2022.
A group of our dedicated volunteers from Mount Gambier joined NGT’s Jess and Ange on the journey to Eaglehawk, where we met Eaglehawk caretaker Andy. The group planted roughly 460 plants in two areas of the property, to extend the existing revegetation work, underway since 2014. The plants established included Banksia, grass trees, native pine, tea tree, grasses, and the all important yam daisy. The yam daisy (Microseris lanceolata, also known as “murnong”) is an important traditional indigenous food source, with edible tubers. A history of grazing has led to a decline in this species which is favoured by sheep, and it can also be quite hard to propagate in the nursery. This year has been the first time yam daisy has been planted at Eaglehawk Waterhole. We hope to be able collect seed from these plants in the future and continue to use them in further revegetation around the property.
Andy was keen to show the group around the first planting, which was completed in 2014, where Ange found some perfect stringybark and melaleuca seeds to collect. We were also able to appreciate some of big old remnant red gums, and Andy found a skink, Ctenotus spaldingii, under some old iron.
It was a great day out with the volunteers. A huge thank you goes out to all of them for their time and hard work getting all those plants in the ground so quickly.
This planting day was made possible by Planet Ark’s Seedling Bank.
