Fifteen Trees has been working with Westgate Biodiversity for at least 8 years now, purchasing trees for their revegetation projects and taking corporations planting (and sometimes weeding) in the park. We thought it was ‘high time’ that we put the spotlight on this fabulous organisation and its band of volunteers.
Westgate Biodiversity is a community-based not-for-profit organisation that manages (along with Parks Vic) Westgate Park in Port Melbourne. Westgate Biodiversity and Bili Native Nursery, grow and sell locally indigenous plants and are working towards transforming Westgate Park into a natural, bush-like place reminiscent of what the place looked liked pre European settlement. The team of 20+ volunteers also work to educate the wider community on the importance of protecting and enhancing the natural environment, urban biodiversity, and healthy environments. They do this by planting locally indigenous plant species and encouraging volunteering and community engagement with the natural environment. It is a pleasure to work alongside them to help revegetate sections of the park, one by one.
Westgate Park is one of most accessible parks in Melbourne, being right under the Westgate Bridge, where the Yarra River meets Port Phillip Bay. It is a mixture of coastal, salt marsh and swamp environment. The indigenous people (Kulin Nation) found everything they needed to live – good climate, shelter, food (eels, fish, birds), fresh water and medicine.
We acknowledge the Elders and members of the Yalukit Wilam clan of the Boon Wurrung language group, (Kulin Nation) who are the custodians of the land.
European settlement saw the area turned into a dumping ground for contaminated soil, rubble from building sites, rubbish was burnt and invasive weeds took over the native vegetation. It was officially opened in November 1985 by the Hon Joan Kirner who was the then Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands. Clean fill was encouraged, and grass was grown. Biodiversity and ecosystems weren’t totally understood and so it was left as an open park for another 14 years with very little indigenous vegetation.
In 1999, 19-year-old VCA photography student, Naomie Sunner walked the length of the Yarra River from mouth to its source. She felt the park was neglected but nonetheless beautiful. Her initial thought was to volunteer but as there was no actual group looking after the park she established the Friends of Westgate Park and set to work.
The sheer size was daunting, but this land had been so disturbed that nothing I could do would make it worse. There were some areas with remnant salt marsh but wasn’t the same as walking into a real remnant site. There were maybe 10 planted species, a few of them indigenous but lots of invasives.
Naomi Sunner | Founder | Friends of Westgate Park.
Over the course of 20 years, the Friends of Westgate Park has removed large areas of grass and established 9 ecosystems, with their own plant communities:
- Coastal headland scrub,
- Coastal saltmarsh,
- Coast banksia woodland,
- Heathy woodland,
- Plains grassland,
- Plains grassy woodland,
- Plains sedgy wetlands,
- Riparian woodlands and
- Sand heathlands.
Today, the volunteers have planted over 300 indigenous species, in a variety of different combinations and in a systematic way. The park is attracting 50+ bird species at any one time and in autumn, the park attracts lovers of fungi.
We give our heartfelt thank to the early workers at Westgate Park, people such as Naomi Sunner, Rob Youl, George Fotheringham and Tony Flude (RIP). I had the the pleasure to work with Tony for a number of years.
Writer: Colleen Filippa
With a background in Environmental Science, Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in primary, 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, schools and environmental networks.
