Community encouraged to be ambitious about restoration

AS PART of ongoing community efforts to rewild Spring Creek Valley and aid in the reintroduction of native species to the region, the Surf Coast Energy Group (SCEG) is developing a database to track and record all of the species living there.

The database will support the SCEG’s 100-year plan for the area which is intended to counteract declining biodiversity and re-establish habitat conditions to enable different wildlife species to move into, and expand their range, across the coast.

SCEG founder Graeme Stockton said the significant number of species already occupying Spring Creek Valley, while still only remnants, made it even more important to put measures in place to both enhance the resiliency of those animals and increase their populations.

“[We’ve been] documenting all the stuff that we see, and recently agile antechinus have been found in the creek,” he said.

The agile antechinus is a small carnivorous marsupial with a mouse-like appearance. It isn’t considered endangered but is vulnerable to vegetation clearing.

“Agile antechinus is still fairly common through the Otway Ranges, but I would imagine that there would be nowhere else in our backyard in Torquay were you could find agile antechinus so close to our township,” Mr Stockton said.

“But that’s not the only one. Sacred Kingfisher is there, blue-winged parrots are there and then, of course, there’s all the raptors like wedge-tailed eagles and black-shouldered kites and brown falcons.”

 

An important aspect of achieving these goals involves planting, or rewilding, according to the area’s existing ecological vegetation class.

“That’s important because it recognises that all the birds and animals have evolved with that vegetation structure,” Mr Stockton said.

“It allows them, ultimately, to utilise the landscape and move…back along that corridor. It’s going to take time for it to establish but that’s the plan.”

SCEG’s 100-year vision aims to encourage the community to be ambitious about what can be achieved throughout the region and act as a reminder that the species that have been lost from the landscape, cannot return without assistance.

The database will help to measure these efforts.

“If we continue to do the same things then we can expect the same decline in nature,” Mr Stockton said.

“I think it would be really useful for people to think about Spring Creek Valley in the way that we think about Bells Beach.

“Bells Beach wasn’t always looked after. Early on, it was really mistreated.

“Now Bells Beach is an international icon and it’s not just a great recreational reserve, it’s a tremendous economic asset.

“In the same way, Spring Creek Valley, with the things that are already there, could be a tremendous economic asset if we look after that asset.”