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Grace Burn gets 200 more plants

About 200 plants were added along the Grace Burn to revegetate the area for local wildlife.

Healesville Environment Watch Inc (HEWI) secretary Karen Garth said the Grace Burn revegetation project was launched by HEWI in 2015 and the Healesville RSL has been involved since the following year.

“HEWI started the project to encourage landowners to remove weeds and revegetate that area with native plants to protect platypus habitat and create habitat also for lots of our birds and possums,” she said.

“The weed control and the provision of plants have been provided by grants from Melbourne Water (under Liveable Communities, Liveable Waterways Program). Yarra Ranges Council has provided tree guards and stakes for us.”

A group of Woori Yallock Farm School students turned up at the spot near the Healesville RSL to give extra hands for the HEWI’s project on Friday 30 May.

“We’ve had wonderful students via the Woori Yallock Farm School who do a special unit on natural resource management,” Ms Garth said.

“We’ve had at least eight groups of students come and plant about 100 to 200 plants for us several times a year.

“So we’ve now notched up putting at least 3000 on this site.”

The students placed different types of plants in the area including silver wattle, native mint, hazel pomaderris, prickly wattle, and goodenia ovata.

“We’ve also put in a couple of mana gums and a few swamp gums, but only a few because they get quite tall and we don’t need them to crowd out the site,” the HEWI secretary said.

“So there are more shrubs, and we’ve just dotted a few of the taller eucalypts in where you can see there’s an obvious gap that they can fill up.”

Unfortunately, the latest Grace Burn revegetating activity was the last one led by Ms Garth as she is going to retire to have some time to travel to other beautiful parts of Australia.

“So I won’t be able to do the assistance required for the project anymore, but there’s a great relationship between Melbourne Water and the (Healesville) RSL. And I’m sure they’ll be able to continue on and get a further grant,” Ms Garth said.

“I just would like to mention what a successful community partnership this has been, and my involvement with it as a HEWI facilitator has been paid for by Yarra Ranges Council Community Partnership Grant.

“That’s enabled me to come out, discuss things, be here when the students are planting, come back when we report with Melbourne Water, and then help assist with ideas for the next grant to be suggested for.”