Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change visits landholders in Green Hill
Posted on 14 March, 2018 by Tanya Loos
On Friday 9 March, Lily D’Ambrosio MP visited one of our land restoration sites in Green Hill, south of Metcalfe. The Minister had just opened the La Larr Ba Gauwa Park, and wanted to see the work we’re doing locally to protect threatened woodland birds, with funding from the Victorian Government’s Regional Landscapes & Targeted Action initiative.
Landholders Rayleen Bailey and Huntly Barton hosted the visit to their beautiful 273 hectare property. With representatives from Connecting Country, Trust for Nature, Department of Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), and the Minister’s team, it was quite a crowd on the quiet country lane! Huntly kindly offered to take the Minister to the top of Green Hill, where eagles nest, to view the incredible progress with weed control, fencing and revegetation. We all had a chat while Huntly and the Minister zoomed off into the distance in the all-terrain vehicle!
Kirsten Hutchison from Trust for Nature was happy to be there as the property will be placed under a covenant for long-term protection. Kirsten explains why the property is so significant:
‘This covenant (265 ha) is of high conservation significance as it contains ‘Greenhill’, a Scoria Cone (dormant volcano) of notable geological significance. Greenhill is a prominent landmark in the local landscape. The property contains two threatened ecological vegetation classes that are under-represented in the National Reserve System; Plains Grassy Woodland and Scoria Cone Woodland. Both are endangered in the Goldfields and Central Victorian Uplands Bioregions. The remnant native vegetation on the property also contains numerous very large old hollow eucalyptus trees that provide important habitat for local fauna species. The nationally endangered Matted Flax-lily Dianella amoena has been found on the property.
Previously Connecting Country have funded extensive weed control work and additional re-vegetation on the property through their on-ground works programs. The covenant has been funded through DELWP’s Biodiversity On Ground Action (BOGA) program.’
The property also hosts one of Connecting Country’s long-term bird monitoring sites. It is one of few River Red Gum woodland sites with good understorey vegetation, and significant for its records of Brown Treecreeper, Dusky Woodswallow and Restless Flycatcher. After the Minister departed, Tanya, Kirsten and Frances enjoyed doing a bird survey, recording breeding Dusky Woodswallows and numerous other species.
Many thanks to Jill Fleming from DELWP for the invitation, Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and team for visiting, and most of all Rayleen and Huntly for their warmth and willingness to share their property with us.
Please enjoy this gallery of photos taken by Tanya Loos, Frances Howe and Kirsten Hutchison.
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Lily D’Ambrosio, Huntly, Kirsten and Rayleen
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Huntly describes weed control methods to the Minister
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All smiles, with the Minister and Marie listening to Rayleen
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Off they go!
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Do the kelpie was on hand to assist the media team : )
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Rayleen, Aaron, Kirsten and Tanya talk birds
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And they return!
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Bird surveying in this beautiful woodland, which was previously wall to wall weeds
It’s very gratifying to see CC paying attention to degraded landscapes such as this was once (formerly) and encouraging restoration. These woodland landscapes are largely eliminated. If we want these habitats in the future we must restore them almost from scratch. We need test sites, such as this, to trial restoration approaches and monitor speed of recovery. Greenhill is a model for us all and hugely encouraging. I hope the minister learnt what can be done with informed and carefully targeted (funded) works.