This year the CoESB26 conference has done something a little different to mark the occasion. The ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology has partnered with Fifteen Trees to sponsor the planting of 155 native trees, and they’re already in the ground!
It’s a lovely full-circle idea. A conference about understanding and working with living systems, leaving behind a living system of its own. These native trees were planted by community landcare people who know this country well, and they’re a small piece of reforestation restoration in a part of the world that has lost a lot of its original bush.
So here’s the story of where those trees went and who planted them.
Wallis Creek winds its way through mixed farming country in the Hunter Valley, NSW before it meets the Hunter River. Tucked along its banks are a handful of enormous remnant rainforest trees that have been standing for centuries. This planting project will help protect these trees by planting in and around them. Giving them a buffer from the weather and help stabilise the soil.
Over three volunteer days, local community members from the Hunter Region Landcare Network (HRLN) pulled on their boots and went tree planting along the creek’s riparian corridor, i.e the living edges of our waterways. These waterway edges are some of the most important wildlife habitats we have in the Australian landscape.
We really appreciate the sponsorship that has made this revegetation site at Wallis Creek possible. This site is a crucial link in the chain of Dry Rainforest habitat across the Hunter – one of the rarest and most threatened ecosystems in New South Wales. Without the support of sponsors, projects like this simply wouldn’t happen. Every tree planted here brings us one step closer to reconnecting the fragmented patches of rainforest that remain, and giving the wildlife that depends on them a genuine future in this landscape.
Stacy Mail | Lower Hunter Landcare Coordinator | HRLN
The mix of native trees and shrubs that went into the ground reflects included – River Oak, Swamp Oak, Cabbage Gum, River Red Gum, Flooded Gum, Swamp Mahogany, Forest Red Gum, Flax-leaved Paperbark, Prickly-leaved Tea Tree, Native Frangipanni, Soft Corkwood and Willow-leaved Bottlebrush. Together they’ll form a link between the existing rainforest patches across the region and the Lower Hunter, a new biodiversity corridor that lets birds, pollinators and other wildlife travel safely as the landscape slowly stitches itself back together. It’s reforestation project with a very clear purpose – ecosystem restoration.
As these trees mature, flower and fruit, they’ll encourage the return of the birds and pollinators that carry seed from place to place, helping native forests spread naturally. The bird this project is hoping to tempt most is the magnificent Regent Bowerbird.
Writer: Colleen B. Filippa
With a background in Environmental Science (Melbourne Uni), Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in secondary and tertiary education institutions, Colleen left the classroom to start the company. Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise assisting individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting community groups such as Landcare.
