By Tanya Steele
Local organisational leaders got their hands dirty for a cause in Yellingbo this week, joining a conservation group and school students to plant out the habitat for one of Victoria’s beloved faunal emblems – the helmeted honeyeater.
On Thursday 5 September the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater Inc (FoHH) held its inaugural ‘Great CEO Plantout’, encouraging business and community leaders to play a part in saving the critically endangered state bird emblem.
The group planted 1200 plants in the Burrungma Biik – which are the misty lands in Woiwurrung at the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Area and home to the threatened bird population.
They celebrated over morning tea afterwards President Virginia Wallace said The Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater Inc. is the only volunteer-led group committed to saving the State Bird emblem from extinction.
“Times are tough for Victorians right now with the cost of living crisis, but the Helmeted Honeyeater is also experiencing its own cost of living crisis- homelessness or lack of habitat is a huge problem for our sweet bird with a big personality. And with only 250 left in the wild, their need for more habitat is critical to their survival,” she said.
Ms Wallace said they engaged with CEOs and businesses across Victoria to see if they could help them plant more habitat and raise funds so they can keep saving their favourite bird.
“We’ve written to over 100 Victorian companies and locally based businesses to ask them to support us in saving the Helmeted Honeyeater by increasing habitat,” she said.
“Let’s see our CEOs out of the office getting dirt under their fingernails as we improve the habitat for many of our unique native birds and animals.”
FoHH formed in May 1989 when the population of the Helmeted Honeyeaters reached a critically low level of 50 birds.
The plant out was originally supposed to be held on Wednesday with more businesses pledged to be involved but was pushed to Thursday due to weather conditions.
Students from Caulfield Grammar, Executive Manager at Melbourne Water Chris Brace, Head of Operations from Balgownie Estate Grant Flack, Andrea Summits from Australia Post and Ross Williamson from Zoos Victoria joined volunteers from the FoHH group to plant on the day.
The group aimed to plant over 1000 plants to make a real difference to the bird species and got well over that into the ground in short order.
Ms Wallace said that FoHH would like to thank Australia Post’s People of Post program that provided them with the seed funding to kick start the plantout.
“We would also like to thank Pete Cromer for letting us use his Helmeted Honeyeater artwork,” she said.
The event which was a first for the FoHH marks another vital step in the road to recovery for the critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeater.
