Sweet treat for Honeyeater hero

By Kath Gannaway
IN 1989, recently-retired primary school teacher Robert Anderson made an offer which has led him to an unfinished 20 year involvement with the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater.
“If there’s anything I can help you with, let me know,” Mr Anderson said to DSE ranger, the late Steve Craig.
Mr Craig had held a public meeting to rally support for bringing the critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeater back from the brink, and asked Mr Anderson to chair a second meeting.
He did – and found himself the inaugural president of the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater. Now his efforts have been recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia.
“As a teacher I knew it was the state bird emblem but I’m not a birdo, I’m more a plant person,” Mr Anderson says of his enduring commitment to what he still sees as a viable and worthwhile project.
His interest in plants stems from his grandmother, who had a large garden in the then very rural Whittlesea when he was a child. It was something he embraced as a teacher, always encouraging in his students an appreciation of the bush. Throughout his life, he has played an active role in friends groups at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne and Karwarra Australian Plant Garden at Kalorama.
Closer to home, he has replanted the garden at the new Badger Creek Fire Brigade station – a contribution to the local volunteers.
The 600 hectare Yellingbo Reserve, incorporating three creek systems, is at the heart of the Helmeted Honeyeater project, which involves breeding and releasing of the birds and increasing and revegetating their habitat.
The project, a partnership with DSE, Parks Victoria and Healesville Sanctuary, is at the crossroads with the populations having dropped since numbers got up to nearly 130 in he mid-1990s.
The role of the Friends is critical. They operate a nursery, run education programs, monitor the birds in the wild, plant thousands upon thousands of plants and lobby government.
As Mr Anderson, a fit and energetic 75-year-old, sets about his weekly six kilometre bushwalk to monitor the birds and supplement their natural feeding, he says the Queen’s Birthday honour is recognition for all the volunteers, and for everyone involved in the project.
The strength and enthusiasm of the group is something he is especially proud of.
“I think the fact the enthusiasm which started in 1989 and the commitment is still there and we are still getting volunteers and maintaining a strong, vibrant group. That’s a big achievement,” he said.
“It if wasn’t for the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater, there would be no award.
“I still get a buzz when new volunteers come up to the nursery, or we get a new volunteer out feeding. They’re there because they want to be there; it’s a very positive environment – that’s what I like.”