A partnership between conservation groups has seen 1200 plants planted at a community planting day at the Murrummong Vineyard in Gruyere.
Led by Regenerating Farms and supported by Yarra Valley ECOSS, the community planting day took place on 24 August and ended with a barbecue.
Under sunny conditions, 30 people from all walks of life rocked up to the 600 acre property to help establish a nature pathway between the Yarra River and the Murrummong Vineyard.
Regenerating Farms co-founder and director Thomas Kennett said those who attended left the event with a positive experience.
“Being there with friends out in the sun and seeing what a group of people can do together is something that people seem to really connect with.
“Even just getting your hands dirty and planting trees that are part of a wider plan… is something that people generally just really like to participate in,” Mr Kennett said.
Participants planted indigenous species to restore biodiversity, support threatened species, and improve the health of surrounding rivers and farmland.
The area chosen for the planting day was identified through a land stewardship plan for the Murrummong Vineyard, which Mr Kennett said investigated how the landowner can protect and preserve the local environment while maximising its farming potential.
“The farm is very interconnected with its local environmental systems, and even more broadly, the catchment. So a land stewardship plan aims to understand those nuances around your environments that are on the farm and beyond, and then also how that integrates with the farming enterprise on that particular property,” Mr Kennett said.
Not only would the planted pathway benefit local biodiversity, it also provided unique benefits to the vineyard.
“It’s also going to act as a native insectary, so it’s going to attract beneficial insects to help with the management of the vineyard.”
Yarra Valley ECOSS seeded the 1200 plants and supplied them to Regenerating Farms for the day – though this only represented one link in a large web of mutually beneficial relationships.
It starts with Yarra4Life’s Yering Gorge to Yarra Junction Integrated Management Catchment Project, which aims to address threats to the overall health of the Yarra Valley catchment.
Regenerating Farms identified areas for revegetation through the land stewardship plans, and then ECOSS provided the plants for the planting day.
The chain of partnership was finalised as the Yarra Ranges Council’s Ribbons of Green project funded the plants.
“It was quite a collaborative process between Ribbons of Green and the Yarra Ranges Council, Melbourne Water, Yarra4Life and ECOSS,” Mr Kennett said.
Mr Kennett said the opportunity to support the environment while contributing to the community was a privilege.
“It’s a community-led activity that results in a whole range of environmental, social and farming outcomes. It becomes this naturally reinforcing and very positive activity that I feel very fortunate to be able to be a part of and help facilitate.
“Coming together as one to achieve environmental outcomes is just a very powerful activity to be a part of.”
