Over 200 Hills landholders picked up free native tree seedlings last week at the Reveg Festival in Woodside, presented by the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board. It’s the third year the board has offered a plant giveaway, with nearly 20,000 plants given to the community this year. Reveg Festival aims to help heal and revegetate the Cudlee Creek fire scar by encouraging and supporting private landholders to replant paddock trees and important creekline habitats burnt in the 2019/20 fire.
During the day, Deputy Premier the Honorable Dr Susan Close, and Member for Kavel Dan Cregan, dropped by to meet the local community and to learn about the work being done for bushfire recovery through the Local Economic Recovery program. Peramangk Cultural representative David Booth and his son Kyle Sampson, who is a Peramangk descendant and Cultural Knowledge holder, presented a powerful Welcome to Country accompanied by yidaki (didgeridoo).
Live workshops held at the event demonstrated how to prepare for a revegetation project, and how to plant and care for seedlings. Caroline Dorr, Team Leader – Fire Recovery with the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board said: “We planned Reveg Festival to give landholders the best possible chance of ensuring their plants survive and thrive.
The plants were grown with great love and care by Alexandrina Community Nursery, State Flora, Jurlique, Kersbrook Landcare Nursery, Woodside Primary School and Trees for Life, and involved hundreds of hours of often voluntary work. “We look forward to seeing how everyone’s revegetation projects go and hope this will help increase paddock tree numbers and biodiversity on properties across the fire scar, and support species which are still struggling to recover from the fire,” she said.
Recovery/reveg services and businesses also presented stalls, including Arborgreen, Adelaide Hills Council, Mount Barker District Council, PIRSA, Landcare groups (Upper Torrens, Mid Torrens, New Springs, Landcare SA), Goolwa to Wellington Local Action Planning Association (GWLAP), Treecovery, Central Hills Regen Agriculture Network, Trees for Life, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Jurlique, Seeding Natives, Department for Innovation and Skills and the Bushfire Community Legal Program. This project is being delivered by the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board in partnership with the Department of Primary Industries and Regions.
This Local Economic Recovery project is jointly funded by the South Australian and Australian Governments under the National Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. For a free practical Guide to doing revegetation projects on your property, contact the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board on 8391 7500.
