SEEDLINGS OF HOPE: Former forest turning a new leaf

A GEELONG-region koala charity has enlisted more than 100 volunteers as part of a campaign to restore 10 hectares of local habitat for at-risk native species.

Koala Clancy Foundation (KCF) is planting 8000 grey box eucalyptus trees this winter at Balliang, north of the You Yangs, in its largest-ever single-season replacement project.

Its planting drive will restore a block of former eucalypt forest that was cleared for farmland more than a century ago into a wild refuge for endangered plants and animals.

A total of 101 volunteers, including City of Greater Geelong councillors Sarah Mansfield and Belinda Moloney, tourism groups, Deakin University students and KCF members have participated in the latest round of plantings that has already placed 4,300 trees in the ground.

The charity expects koalas to be using the trees within two to four years, and by 20 years that the area is returned to a thriving ecosystem for 16 other species of marsupials, birds, bats and butterflies whose status ranges from vulnerable to critically endangered.

“This enormous 8,000-tree project is a dream come true for me,” foundation president Janine Duffy said.

“Less than 15 per cent of this forest type remains Australia-wide, and it is now classified as endangered.”

“Many of the animals that lived in or used the grey box forests are now endangered, so we are putting some of that ecosystem back.”

The foundation is based between the You Yangs and Brisbane Ranges, near Meredith, and aims to create habitat, educate the community, support research and advocate for protection of wild koalas and their forests.

The existing Balliang grey box site is on a farming property and delivered in partnership with the site’s landowners.

The area is immediately south of one of the region’s last remnants of mature grey box forest that is retained on the property, and would become the southernmost block of the forest type in Australia.

Since 2016, KCF has planted 73,000 trees in greater Geelong and 2.8 million invasive weeds with help from 1800 volunteers.

The project has received backing from the International Fund for Animal Welfare and City of Greater Geelong through its environment sustainability grants.

Koala Clancy Foundation’s next public planting day is this Sunday, July 24). Volunteers can register at the foundation’s website.