Tree Day to set down roots

SUNDAY 30 July is Planet Ark’s National Tree Day, and a local team have a goal to plant 2500 plants in Ironbark as part of the event.

Along with members of the public, Ironbark Gully Friends Landcare Group will plant native species such as sheoaks, casuarinas, ironbarks, and others, at Garden Gully Recreation Reserve in Ironbark.

Spokesperson for the group Carolyn Jones said they currently have about 40 volunteers signed up, but ideally, they would like 100 people to help get the job done.

“We’ve got some quite good trees there now, but we’re hoping to [increase] biodiversity,” said Ms Jones.

“We’re trying to get maybe some more black cockatoos to come in with some casuarina trees.

“Here’s hoping in the future that we might even get kookaburras back in Ironbark Gully which would be fantastic.”

Ms Jones said she has lived in the area for about 25 years, and since the first planting in 2016 she has noticed big change.

“It’s been amazing. When they did the initial planting it was really just a mullock heap,” she said.

“There were just weeds, it was a fairly degraded site, and now there’s wattle birds and little honeyeaters and wren and there’s always lots of ravens.”

The City of Greater Bendigo has been helpful in providing support for the cause, said Ms Jones.

“They’re providing some mulch and they’ve got a trailer with planting tools like trowels and shovels and with getting permission to use the land,” she said.

Although she encourages people to register online beforehand, Ms Jones said registering on the day is fine, and encourages people to bring gloves, drink bottles, closed-in footwear, and a hat.

For this project, Ironbark Gully Friends Landcare Group has partnered with the City of Greater Bendigo and Planet Ark, which created the initiative in 1996.

The event will run from 10am to 2pm.