Spring plantings well underway
Bushbank/Birdlife project site
A planting event was held at the Bushbank/Birdlife Australia project site, located at Broadford on Sunday, 3 August. The weather couldn’t have been better on the day, with good rain in the week before planting, and glorious sun on the day. Twenty-three eager volunteers helped out on the day, completing a good chunk of this year’s planting, with just a few plants needing to grow on a bit in the nursery before they go in next year.
The volunteers planted a mix of trees and midstory plants in individual wire guards in copses through the site, with “lots of spiky things” hoping to improve the bird habitat.
The Trust has provided $14,300 in grant co-funding to enable 15.4Ha of restorative revegetation to occur, in partnership with Birdlife, the landowner and the Bushbank Private land stream initiative’s Key Delivery Partner, Cassinia Environmental.
Avenel Seed Production Orchard planting
Planting was completed on Monday, 1 September for the first stage of the new seed production orchard at Avenel in a partnership between the Trust, Euroa Arboretum, Goulburn Valley Water and the Goulburn Broken Indigenous Seedbank.
Approximately 3,300 plants over 13Ha were hand planted in 35 rows for ease of future seed harvest.
Species planted were primarily a range of acacias, including golden wattle, gold-dust wattle, bent-leaf wattle and mallee wattle. The Trust has provided $165,000 towards the estimated $370,000 cost of this project. In addition, preparations are well underway for 1Ha of intensive seed production areas for grassland target species.
Take a look at the before and after pictures below of the new seed orchard site…!
Trust funds three more Bushbank reveg sites
The Natural Resources Conservation Trust will provide over $132,000 to fund three Bushbank private land stream revegetation sites in conjunction with One Tree Planted, Bushbank/Cassinia and the respective landowners.
This funding will help to restore over 130 hectares of land across three properties, located in Wedderburn, Dunkeld and Arnold West.
The Wedderburn restoration site is in the Goldfields Bioregion on a Trust for Nature covenanted property. The BushBank project would see around 60 ha of Box Ironbark Forest (depleted), Low Rises Grassy Woodland (vulnerable) and Sandstone Ridge Shrubland restored.
The Dunkeld restoration site is in the Victorian Volcanic Plain Bioregion on a 460ha sheep grazing property. The BushBank project will see around 51ha of Plains Grassy Woodland (endangered) and Floodplain Riparian Woodland (endangered) restored through revegetation.
The Arnold West property is located 1km east of Kingower State Park. Historically, the site was cleared for both cropping and grazing. Livestock were taken off the property a year ago. It is mainly open cleared land with Simpson Creek running through the northeast corner of the Site. The restoration works will see 19.4 hectares of habitat restored.
We look forward to receiving updates from the respective landowners about these projects in the future.
VicBioCon 2026
The Trust is looking forward to once again supporting the student-led Victorian Biodiversity Conference (VicBioCon), which will be held at the University of Melbourne in February 2026. The Trust has supported the conference, including funding research grants awarded at the conference, for the past two years.
In February 2026, VicBioCon will proudly mark its 10th anniversary – a decade of championing biodiversity research and advocacy throughout Victoria. VicBioCon began in 2017 as a grassroots initiative led by students from across Victoria who recognised the need for a low-cost, accessible conference.
From those beginnings, VicBioCon has grown into a much-anticipated annual event, entirely organised by volunteers. Each year, their reach and impact have expanded. The 2025 conference attracted over 400 attendees from a diverse mix of universities, local councils, environmental consultancies, government departments and nature advocacy groups.
The Victorian Biodiversity Conference aims to:
- Showcase projects involving Victorian institutions relating to biodiversity (everything from local to global projects).
- Strengthen networking between Victorian institutions working on biodiversity (academic, industry, not-for-profit and government).
- Highlight the exceptional work of early career researchers and professions, while providing networking opportunities with those more established in their careers.
More information is available on the VicBioCon website.
Looper caterpillar project website launched
In the Trust grants distributed in July 2025, Wildlife Unlimited received up to $49,200 in funding to expand their understanding and research of the Mallee Looper caterpillar.
The project is progressing well, with some excellent collaboration with South Australian researchers. Wildlife Unlimited’s Mallee Area Manager Fiona Murdoch visited Gluepot Birdlife Reserve and Calperum Station ALT Reserve recently, which have both been hit hard by Mallee Looper caterpillars (see image of Gluepot below). Fiona said the visits “confirmed how important our research will be to identify what the Loopers are doing in emerging hotspots in Victoria, compared to the established outbreak area in South Australia”.
Significant defoliation of eucalypts has been occurring in the Victorian Mallee since 2023, caused by the Mallee Looper caterpillar, a native species.
The grant awarded by the Trust will provide funding for Wildlife Unlimited’s project, which aims to use this crisis as a catalyst for community collaboration and citizen science participation and will leverage existing professional biodiversity networks to enhance collaboration across states.
If you would like to learn more about the project and see how you can get involved as a citizen scientist, visit the project website.
NRCT at ALCA
NRCT Board Directors Julia Hunter and Cecilia Riebl, and Trust Executive Officer Les McLean travelled to Cairns recently for the Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA) conference.
The theme for this year’s conference was “Scaling Up: Local Action for Global Solutions,” focusing on conservation efforts and collaboration among various stakeholders in the field. The event brought together over 400 leaders and changemakers from diverse backgrounds to discuss and promote nature conservation initiatives.
Included in the fantastic line up of diverse presenters was Kurt Jones, the CEO of Co-Exist Australia. The Trust recently funded this youth-led organisation to bring their youth engagement model into Victoria and the southern states (see next story).
Jess joins Co-Exist
In Trust grants awarded in July 2025, Co-Exist Australia received $99,000, to enable the expansion of their Empowering Youth for Conservation Leadership program further into Victoria and south-eastern Australia.
Co-Exist Australia is a youth-led environmental movement focused on reconnecting young Australians with nature through community-driven conservation efforts.
Funding from the Trust has also enabled the appointment of a new part-time Community Manager – Jess Ditchfield (pictured above).
Jess has come on board as the organisation’s South & West Community Manager. She will be overseeing Co-Exist’s local collective leaders around Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia and will be building community partnerships to drive youth engagement in conservation initiatives like land restoration and clean ups – as well and incorporating wellbeing and a touch of adventure to all that they do!
Keep an eye out for the Co-Exist crew, coming to lend a hand to a site near you.
2026 WELA National Leadership Program
The Trust was proud to sponsor the Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia (WELA) National Leadership Program in 2025. Through this sponsorship, participant Alyssa Britnell (pictured below) received a scholarship to complete the Program.
We are excited to continue our sponsorship for the 2026 Program.
WELA’s National Leadership Program is for women and gender diverse changemakers who want to accelerate positive transformation for the environment and climate.
Open to those working (paid or unpaid) for the environment or climate in non-profits, government, business, or as volunteers, participants are selected for their potential and diverse contributions nationwide.
Applications for the 2026 Program open on Monday, 27 October. Visit the WELA website for more information.
Looking Back – Honouring Stella Taylor
Stella Elaine Taylor (also referred to as Mrs R Taylor) gave 16 years of service to the Save The Forests Campaign Council and the Natural Resources Conservation League between 1947 and 1963. Stella was the first female President of the Save The Forests Campaign Council, elected to the role in 1948 and 1949.
The first record of Stella’s attendance at a Save The Forests Campaign Council meeting was 24 September 1947, where she is recorded as Mrs R Taylor, representing the Country Women’s Association of Victoria (CWA). She is also recorded as making a verbal report on behalf of the CWA. She attended the next meeting on 5 February 1948 when she was elected to the Executive Committee. At the meeting on 29 September 1948, Stella is recorded as “President, Mrs R. R. Taylor (in the Chair)” and she gave the President’s Address.
In February 1950, Stella retired as President but continued on as a member of the Executive Committee, where she remained the CWA representative. The last meeting of the Save The Forests Campaign Council was held on 26 September 1951. The first meeting of the NRCL was held on 21 February 1952. Stella was recorded as an individual member of the NRCL and continued to attend NRCL meetings from February 1952 until April 1963.
Honouring Stella
Until this year, the Natural Resources Conservation League was the owner of land in Cranbourne West, upon which a new wetland reserve has been constructed. Ownership of the wetland reserve has now been transferred to Casey City Council.
The NRCL Board will propose to Casey City Council that this wetland reserve be named the “Stella Taylor Wetland Reserve” to recognise Stella’s longstanding contributions to both the Save The Forests Campaign Council and the NRCL.
NRCL’s Archives contractor, Glenn Owens, has been undertaking research efforts to identify and contact Stella’s descendants in order to seek their approval for Stella’s service to NRCL and the Save the Forest’s Campaign to be recognised in this way.
