Warralily home to Largest reestablishment of native grasslands in Victoria

Thursday, 30 April 2020

For the past three years Warralily and Flora Victoria have been cultivating and harvesting native grass seeds from our very own conservation reserves to restore the native vegetation in our neighbourhood.

Warralily home to Largest reestablishment of native grasslands in Victoria


These seeds are now being sown along Warralily’s Stewarts Rd Greenway and will make up the largest broad-acre reestablishment of native grasslands in Victoria. 



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Since the inception of the project, the team have been dedicated to the vision of creating a place where the community feels connected to nature by restoring and subtly celebrating the natural assets of the landscape.
 
 
“In partnership with the City of Greater Geelong it has taken 5 years of planning and 3 years of exotic weed control to get the project to this point. It is an exciting time for the environment at Warralily with the establishment of 3.36 Ha of native grassland areas. The ongoing creek and environmental restoration works tie all of our landscape projects together with history of the site,….A huge thank you to the community of Warralily for being so supportive and patient throughout this initiative” Jeremy Minter, Warralily Project Manager, Urban Design.

 

 

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Warralily’s Native Landscape
Warralily is located within the Victorian Volcanic Plains Bioregion ,where grassy woodland vegetation once occurred west from Melbourne to near the South Australian border. Stewart’s Reserve on Warralily Boulevard is among one of the best remaining examples of Grassy Woodland in the Geelong region. With eucalyptus trees like Manna Gum, Swamp Gum, large old River Red Gums and a variety of native grasses, wildflowers and sedges.

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Grassy woodlands like this are classified as endangered vegetation in Victoria

The direct seeding program that is being carried out will cover 3.36 ha native grassland reestablishments and include native grass species such as red leg, spear, kangaroo and silky blue grasses.

These types of Australian native grasses maintain an ornamental look throughout every season, are stress tolerant of intermittent droughts and fires and have huge biodiversity values. A vast number of beneficial insect species and wildlife call grasslands home including finches and parrots (attracted by seeding plants), native butterflies’, lizards and their natural predators such as kookaburras.

Harvesting Native Warralily Seeds

There are three dedicated conservation zones within Warralily which are set out to protect the existing native vegetation. Over the past 3 years we have worked with Flora Victoria who specialise in native grass seed production and direct seeding to collect the seeds of native grass from these reserves and areas within a 50km radius.   

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Through a mixture of hand and vacuum collection techniques; exhaustive sorting and identification processes, the seeds were broadcasted onto the ground recently using a machine developed and built by Flora Victoria specifically for this task. 

Over the next 12 months we will start to see all the different species germinate throughout the seasons.  
 
Once these grasses start to establish, we will add in another layer of red gums, acacias and mixed understory scrubs to bring the landscape character of the creek corridor closer to the road. 
 
Stage 2 of this initiative will be a similar revegetation exercise along the banks of Armstrong Creek from the Surf Coast Hwy to Horseshoe Bend Rd.

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If you would like more information on the landscape or natural assets in and around Warralily please contact Nina Bendon, Community Development Officer on ninabendon@newland.com.au
 

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