Victoria’s native vegetation is critical for the health of the Victorian environment, as it supports healthy soils and habitat for wildlife, protects water quality and mitigates the impacts of climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide.

For this reason, the tireless work done by Landcare and environmental volunteer groups, networks and landholders to restore and revegetate Victoria’s landscapes is crucial. The Victorian Government has supported community groups to deliver revegetation projects across 1,126 hectares of land, through the 2023 Victorian Landcare Grants.

This edition features some of the many valuable results achieved by these revegetation projects. There are inspiring stories on landscape-scale revegetation projects that have been operating for several decades, as well as individual landholders working to restore and revegetate their rural properties. The principles of these projects are similar, in that all these projects require planning, research, testing, hard work and resilience.

The Kyabram Urban Landcare Group is leading a community-led restoration effort of the Ern Miles Reserve. Since 2001, this group has transformed the former weed-infested drainage basin into native bushland with wildlife habitat, attracting the local community to use and enjoy the site. Local primary school students participated in some of the first planting days at the reserve, with many of these young people returning to help volunteer at the site as they moved through high school.

In Melbourne, young people are helping local communities take ownership of their local green spaces. The Urban Bushland Initiative is an urban restoration and revegetation project that focuses on revegetating the varied and little-known empty spaces throughout Melbourne. This group is run by young people, and more than 70 per cent of the volunteers who attend their planting days are under 35 years old.

The three biolink projects that are featured are working to improve landscape connectivity in different parts of the state. These projects focus on reconnecting areas of remnant vegetation and creating new corridors of revegetation on both public and private land. The projects are run by the Mornington Peninsula Landcare Network (MPLN), Bass Coast Landcare Network, and Project Hindmarsh in the Wimmera.

The MPLN’s Greens Bush to Arthurs Seat Biolink aims to improve catchment health and support threatened species like powerful owls and swamp skinks. This biolink connects the Main Creek Biolink to the Southwest Mornington Peninsula Biolink, and 40 private properties have signed formal landholder agreements to be involved.

Biolink plans were developed for these two areas as part of the Linking the Mornington Peninsula Landscape project, a flagship project of MPLN that has developed 11 biolink plans across the Mornington Peninsula.

Effective partnerships with the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, Melbourne Water, Parks Victoria, local groups and community members have helped the project achieve greater connectivity in the landscape.

For urban residents, volunteers can support rural revegetation projects by getting involved in the TreeProject, which has more than 30 years of experience in growing indigenous plants. The TreeProject relies on urban volunteers to propagate and care for seedlings in their backyards until they are ready to be planted in rural areas by landholders and Landcare groups. Even balcony space is big enough to help join in.

I’d also like to thank all the environmental volunteers, groups, networks, and landholders for the massive amount of planting work you do to help revegetate Victoria and restore our landscapes. Your contributions are both significant and highly valued.

I look forward to continuing my visits to Landcare groups across the state, and meeting more of the wonderful volunteers and groups who work to support the Victorian environment.

Steve Dimopoulos MP
Minister for Environment
Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events
Minister for Outdoor Recreation