Victorian Landcare Magazine - Spring 2025, Issue 90
As Parks Victoria planning officer Bruce Wehner drives around the Goulburn Valley, he can see the difference more than 40 years of work by the Goulburn Valley Tree Group (GVTG) has made to the landscape.
“You drive past plantations that we were involved in establishing along the roadsides and on properties … and it’s a great feeling to see these trees now, as fully grown, mature trees,” he said.
“And you think, gee, I was around when we first started talking about that project and there you can see the end result. It’s a real legacy for the group.”
Bruce took on the role of secretary in 1985, as part of his job as a forester with the then-Forest Commission, not long after he arrived in Shepparton, and stayed on as secretary when it became a voluntary position.
Led by inaugural president, the late Geoff Witten, the GVTG started with a clear goal: to reverse rural tree decline by encouraging landholders to plant trees, growing trees for them and undertaking revegetation projects that might otherwise never happen.
Initially, the group of volunteers focused on providing trees to local farmers to address salinity concerns in the irrigation region.
“We were trying to raise trees that would be appropriate for irrigation farms,” Bruce said.
“A lot of them were Australian but not local to the area.”
Above: Former Goulburn Valley Tree Group volunteers Yvonne Harper (from left), Betty Harvey, Rhonda Vincitorio, Yvonne Russell, Roger Clements, Nancy Bloodworth, Tom Dumaresq, Lorraine Pratt, Marg Foord and Inez Raleigh.
Staples included river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), casuarinas, callistemons and salt-tolerant prickly paperbark (Melaleuca styphelioides).
As the climate changed and salinity became less of a focus, the group diversified its offerings, introducing more local and dryland species such as grey box (E macrocarpa), white box (E albens), yellow box (E melliodora), wattles and even rare local hakea (Hakea tephrosperma).
Major projects included co-ordinating the revegetation of 26 hectares of cleared land at the former Tatura Sewerage Farm on Dhurringile Rd, Tatura, where about 15,000 trees were planted between 1988 and 1992.
GVTG established a native tree nursery at Tatura in 1994 where members raise about 60,000 trees each year for sale during autumn.
The trees are grown from seed – much of it sourced from the Euroa Arboretum – and volunteers from the local Country Women’s Association, school and church groups help members with the laborious task of pricking out. This involves separating the tiny seedlings by hand and transferring them to their own individual plastic tubes.
A record 75,000 trees were pricked out in 1991 and by 2003, the group had raised its one millionth tree. Estimates vary, but it’s thought the tally is now between 1.5 million and 2 million.
Over the years, volunteers have contributed tens of thousands of hours to the group’s efforts.
Today, the group produces about 20,000 trees, shrubs and grasses each year, with customers including not just farmers but also Landcare groups, residential property owners and hobby farmers looking to create windbreaks and woodlots.
“There was some massive tree planting going on back in the 1980s and early 1990s and now a lot of the local farms have probably got a pretty good coverage of trees,” Bruce said.
Above: Seedlings are sun hardened at the Goulburn Valley Tree Group nursery in Tatura before being offered for sale.
Deb Lynch joined GVTG after retiring and about three years ago took over as nursery manager from Nancy Bloodworth, who had been with the group for 18 years.
“It’s so rewarding,” Deb said.
“And it’s one way of feeling that you can make a difference. We’re not putting the trees in the ground, but we’re giving people the opportunity to do that at a very affordable price.”
Deb also has worked with Goulburn Murray Landcare Network Landcare facilitator Dan Walker, whose role is funded by the Victorian Government’s Victorian Landcare Facilitator Program, to lift the group’s profile by hosting an annual Big Backyard Biodiversity Day. The day offers presentations and displays by a local wildlife carer – along with the chance to interact with possums, reptiles, spiders and insects – and experts in biodiversity and sustainability.
“It’s been a huge success,” Deb said.
“We have a group of our loyal customers that come in every year and plant new trees, but we’ve had lots of people come in that didn’t know we existed.”
The group held an informal celebration of the 40-year milestone and officially opened public sales for the year at the nursery in March.
Present and past members of the group reminisced over morning tea, and former president Tom Dumaresq, who stepped down in 2022 after 33 years as president, and original member Yvonne Russell cut a cake to mark the occasion.
GVTG activities are mostly self-funded from plant sales.
Bruce Wehner is secretary of Goulburn Valley Tree Group and Deb Lynch manages the native plant nursery.
For more information email goulburnvalleytreegroup@gmail.com or call 0400 059 765.