Resilience of our plants is certainly a consequence of resilient people!  Many thanks to our resilient staff, volunteers, and partner organisations for their exceptional efforts so far planting this winter, with more planting at various sites still to come!

The dry conditions we have been experiencing again this autumn and winter have necessitated pivoting.  We’ve had to do things a little differently to try to facilitate both an enjoyable and efficient experience for our planters, as well as giving the plants the best possible chance of survival.

With the ground too hard for repetitive digging (but too culturally sensitive for ripping), augured holes have been pre-prepared which certainly makes it quicker and easier to get the plants in the ground at the correct depth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seasoned planting volunteers may have also noticed the difference in our plant guards this year – we have had to utilize much taller and robust corflute guards held in place with two larger hardwood stakes. These are being used to protect our seedlings from the larger and hungrier wallaby, kangaroo, and deer populations that have multiplied from record breeding during the previous four wet seasons.

And with the already solid Bonegilla clay soils at Ryans Lagoon combined with limited soil moisture this winter making for tough going, a hammer drill is being used to install the second hardwood stake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transporting these larger and heavier guards and stakes has been no mean feat either, with many trips back and forth to deliver them in readiness for planting. This has been especially true for our island planting sites! It took 20 paddling trips across the Murray River to ferry them to Turtle Island and then 27 wheelbarrow trips with these cumbersome and weighty tree guards and stakes to position these materials at various sites around this 2 km riparian corridor.  Staff certainly get value for their gym membership in this outdoor environment!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’d like to join in any of our planting days, please see our Events page for more information and to register.

Thank you to funding partners: the Victorian Government’s $77 million BushBank Program, which is restoring more than 20,000 hectares of land across Victoria to create healthy wildlife habitat and capture carbon; and the Australian Government Urban Rivers program for enabling these large-scale reafforestation projects to be delivered.