Great Southern Landscapes

Connecting and Expanding Habitat in Gippsland’s National Parks and Reserves

As part of the Australian Government’s 20 Million Trees Programme, we are working with Parks Victoria to increase and reconnect key areas of habitat on ex-farming land recently added to the Gippsland reserve system.

Key Facts

384,000

Trees to be planted

192ha

Land restored

4

Threatened wetland species saved

As part of the Australian Government’s 20 Million Trees Programme, we are working with Parks Victoria to increase and reconnect key areas of habitat on ex-farming land recently added to the Gippsland reserve system.

Gippsland, a region of south-eastern Australia, is home to some of the most striking and remote national parks in the state. Through strategic restoration of key sites, Greening Australia is working to reduce the impact of weeds, create new habitat and restore the natural diversity of this unique landscape. Parks Victoria is assisting with planning and maintenance of sites.

Priority project areas include The Gippsland Lakes (including wetlands & River Red Gum forests), Cape Liptrap Coastal Reserve’s heathlands and coastal dune scrub, and the Mitchell Rivers Eucalypt forests, woodlands and riparian tributaries.

The Challenge

Gippsland contains a diverse range of unique habitats, from the Victorian Alps through the Gippsland Lakes, Plains and the Strzelecki Ranges, to Wilsons Promontory on the coast. With less than 5% of the woodland landscape remaining, isolation and fragmentation of the environment is having a severe impact on plants and wildlife. Local rivers, the Gippsland Lakes system and some of Victoria’s most extensive grasslands are under threat from weed encroachment and erosion. Due to extensive land clearing, the once common iconic Lyrebird is at risk of becoming locally endangered.

The Solution

To restore the natural diversity of Gippsland and preserve culture, we are planting 384,000 trees across 192 hectares, increasing existing habitat and reconnecting the land within its national parks and reserves.

In wetland areas we are working to reduce weeds and replace them with an increased diversity of floodplain vegetation that will support a variety of insect, frog and bird species. Over 90,000 seedlings have already been planted across the Ramsar listed Gippsland Lakes, helping to support threatened wildlife including the Australasian Bitten, Green and Golden-Bell Frog, Growling Grass Frog and Lathams Snipe.

Greening Australia is also working to restore over 50 hectares of old farm land within Mitchell River National Park, alongside Parks Victoria and traditional landowners, the Gunaikurnai Joint Management Rangers. 100,000 new trees and shrubs will be planted on the site on exposed gullies and tributaries of the Mitchell River to slow erosion. The site is in one of 10 parks jointly managed with the Gunaikurnai. The aim of the project to help preserve existing sites, while working to uncover more of the area’s unique cultural heritage. A Walking Together On Country Celebration was held to mark the beginning of works on the site.

Project Officer

Martin Potts

Program Specialist

Martin has worked with Greening Australia for more than 10 years, developing and managing landscape-scale projects within the Gippsland region in Victoria. Current projects including the Red Gum Grassy Woodlands with the East Gippsalnd CMA and the Lakes Wellington Wetlands Project. These projects incorporate multiple partner agencies and community, functional connectivity modelling and large-scale revegetation. Martin has worked with the many diverse landscapes of Gippsland and he has developed an understanding of the regenerating processes the major vegetation communities need for successful revegetation.

Other specific strategic initiatives that Martin has developed skills in include: Grassy Groundcover revegetation and Whole of Paddock restoration, Indigenous land mapping and schools environmental programs, threatened species recovery including Growling Grass frogs and migratory wading birds, along with revegetation monitoring to determine a value of net gain achieved.