Dear Subscribers for the Planet,

Welcome to another season of tree planting.

Because of you, and the growing community of subscribers who share your commitment to this beautiful country, Fifteen Trees is able to offer thousands of native trees to community groups right across Australia. From landcare volunteers in the Victorian Mallee to revegetation crews in the rainforests of northern NSW, these are real people, doing real work, in places that need it most.

Over the coming months, we’ll keep you updated with every new planting as it comes in – the stories, the photos, the wildlife. Each update is a small reminder that something quietly remarkable is happening out there, and that you are part of it.

Collectively, the subscribers of Fifteen Trees are contributing to the restoration of Australian ecosystems. Biodiversity corridors are being rebuilt. Native habitat is returning. And animals that depend on healthy, connected landscapes are getting a fighting chance.

Please take a moment to read about your impact with this latest update

Colleen Filippa | Founder & Director | Fifteen Trees

Here’s a list of our current subscribers (81) …

Mik Aidt (Geelong Media), Albert Filippa, Deborah Bourke, Dana Bretag, Sandra Briody, Andrea Hurley (Hattie and the Wolf), Jacob Johnston, Sean Keniry, Jill Clarke & Paul Duggan, Rosalind Read, Annabel Ritchie, Rosie Hunt, Lynn Teale, Mary Wade, Lorena Wootton, Rae Knowler, Bette Schwarz, Caitlyn Jordan (Ethical Design Co), Sonja Meyer (Ethical Design), Georgina Imberger, Carole Felmy, Fiona Leahy & Antony Swingler, Christopher Hawkins, James Hosking, Marian Turner, Glenys Grigg, Lucy Bracey, Sarah Hart, Fiona Baxter, Eliza-Jane Gilchrist, Corinna Klupiec,, Helen Charlesworth, Sean Werth, Martine Stoll, Bronwen James, Sharon Chan, David & Karen Dawson, Michael Nicols, Julie Atkinson, Natasha Ludowyk, Belinda Coates, Joanna Cosgriff, Andrew Griffiths, Jen Askham, Anthony & Catherine Clifford, Samantha Little, Marji Puotinen, Gerri Savage, Susan & Darryl Murray, Ellen Burns, Sara Melvin, Helen Browitt, Fern Hames, Daniel Cocking, Cait Larcombe, Anthony (AJ) Sleeman, Erin Lee, Sam Munday, Suzannah Morrison, Moria Finucane (Finucane & Smith), Carla Bergen, Sue Giles, Helen Pritchard, Ian Heriot, Natalie Marshall, Liz McLean, Chloe Bond, Liz Stephen, Heidi Fog, Catherine Wilson, Frances Gass, Julia Andrews (Urthly Organics), Richard Finlay-Jones, LSW Lawyers, Jan Souter, Julia Zemiro, Mia Bowyer (Automate Social), Amy Stapleton,  LSW Lawyers, Frances Gass, Rose Hunt, Fiona Baxter, Douglas Proctor, Costa Georgiadis (Costa’s World) and Jenn (EatPlayLiveMelbourne).

We will update this blog as more trees are planted for our subscribers.

• Murrayville, VIC | 600 trees
• Bellingen Island, NSW | 500 trees
• Westgate Park, VIC | 1,800 trees
• Sunshine Coast, QLD | 1,000 trees

Site 1 | Murrayville, VIC | 600 trees

Out in the Victorian Mallee, not far from the South Australian border, there’s a small town called Murrayville. It’s here, at the Murrayville Wetlands, that the Murrayville Landcare Group recently gathered for a planting day that brought the community together. Twenty-five people turned up, and everyone found their place. Some grabbed shovels and got stuck into digging holes, others followed behind with trays of seedlings, and a few took on watering duty, and someone fired up the BBQ – because no community tree planting day in Australia is complete without a sausage sizzle to bring everyone together at the end.

Over the course of the day, the group planted a mix of species suited to this dry, sandy country – Eucalyptus occidentalis, Eucalyptus calycogona, Eucalyptus gracilis, along with Melaleuca halmaturorum, Melaleuca lanceolata, Melaleuca gibbosa, Acacia notabilis and Callistemon rugulosus. Every one of these natives is chosen for a reason – they’re tough, they’re local, and they know how to survive in a landscape that swings between drought and flood.

As the trees establish themselves in the Murrayville Wetlands, their roots will help stabilise the soil, reduce erosion and filter runoff before it reaches the water. Over time, this kind of ecosystem restoration also means the wetlands will be far more resilient when the dry years come, and better able to handle the wet ones too. And as these natives grow, they’ll quietly get on with the job of pulling carbon out of the atmosphere.

A heartfelt thank you to supporters of  Fifteen Trees for your generous donation of trees to the Murrayville Wetlands. Your support is helping restore vital habitat, protect native species, and strengthen our connection to this beautiful landscape. Your contribution makes a lasting difference.

Fiona Willersdorf | Facilitator | Murrayville Landcare Group

The Murrayville Wetlands are home to some genuinely special birds including the Spotted Pardalote, the Yellow-plumed Honeyeater, the Splendid Fairy-wren, the Red-capped Robin and the Rainbow Bee-eater. The Murrayville Landcare Group is hoping that with more habitat, more food and more shelter, they’ll see a lot more of them in the years to come.

Site 2 | Bellingen Island, NSW | 500 trees

The trees were planted on Bellingen Island, NSW (Gumbaynggirr Country) by Landcare members over the course of a few weeks. The flying fox population on Bellingen Island is a nationally recognised site. It is mostly occupied by Grey headed Flying Foxes (nationally threatened), while Black Flying Foxes and Little Red Flying foxes have also been recorded at the camp. The area is also home to Koalas, Quolls, Greater Gliders, and Glossy Black Cockatoos.

This particular site was selected to provide multiple benefits, such as:

• increase forage and roost sites for Grey Headed Flying Foxes,
• Improve health of the site,
• reduce erosion and
• improve connectivity between fragmented flora reserves.

The dominant vegetation immediately around planting sites is Lowland Subtropical Rainforest and Wet Sclerophyll Forest, but much of this had been cleared for farmland in the past.

Thank you to the generous sponsors of these trees. By sponsoring this project, you have helped Bellinger Landcare’s efforts to provide increased forage for our beloved local flying fox populations.

Andrew Yager | Project Manager | Bellinger Landcare Inc.

These trees will improve the availability of winter forage for Grey Headed Flying Foxes. These flying foxes are a keystone species in the Australian landscape and provide critical pollination and seed dispersal services. Although they have a varied diet, the availability of nectar in late winter and early spring restricts population growth. By improving the availability of this forage, Bellinger Landcare Group are helping to ease that stress on the flying foxes. The trees will also provide multi-species benefit to other mammals, birds and insects of the area, and help with erosion control and flood mitigation.

Site 3 | Westgate Park, VIC | 1,800 trees

Westgate Biodiversity is a not-for-profit organisation located at the base of one of Melbourne’s most iconic landmarks and busiest gateways to the city – the Westgate Bridge. Nestled beneath this urban landmark, the group is working to create a thriving pocket of bushland that provides both sanctuary for wildlife and a green escape for people. It is here, that we planted over 800 trees on the behalf of IGEA.

This community-based organisation plays a vital role in the west of Melbourne. Not only do they grow and sell locally indigenous plants to support home gardeners, schools, and revegetation projects, but they are also passionately restoring Westgate Park. Their vision is to transform what was once a degraded and industrial area into a natural, bush-like haven, filled with diverse plant species that will flourish for decades to come.

The native trees and shrubs planted at the site, included: wattles (Heath, Golden, Lightwood and Coastal), sheoaks (Black, Swamp and Green), saltbushes (Grey and Marsh), correas (White, Smooth and Common) and eucalyptus (River Red Gum, Yello Gum, Ironbark, Swamp Gum and Manna Gum).

The diversity of plantings will help create a rich and resilient ecosystem. As the species flower and fruit at different times of the year, they will provide a continuous supply of food and shelter for local wildlife – from birds and insects to small mammals. Over time, these plantings will not only enhance the biodiversity of Westgate Park but also ensure it becomes a vibrant, living landscape where both people and nature can thrive side by side.

Site 4 | Sunshine Coast Hinterland, QLD | 1,000 trees

On Jinibarra Country in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, a dedicated group of volunteers is doing the kind of work that is making an enormous difference to the native landscape. Between 30 and 50 volunteers turned up across numerous planting days to plant 1,000 native trees kindly donated by our Subscribers for the Planet.

Hinterland Bush Links works across properties throughout the hinterland, partnering with landholders who are aiming to restore their land to what was growing before European settlement. Their most recent planting took place at Booroobin which features a natural spring that forms part of the headwaters of the Mary River. The revegetation around the spring and headwater areas will help stabilise soils, reduce erosion and protect water quality in the Mary River catchment downstream. The quality of the water filtering through the ground into the Mary River all depends upon what happens here.

The species planted reflect the ecological complexity of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. At least 20% of every planting in known koala habitat areas consists of koala food and habitat trees – blue gums, grey gums, tallowwoods, brush box and swamp box. Pioneer and rainforest species including bleeding heart, acacias and sandpaper figs fill out the rest of the mix, building the layered structure that a functioning ecosystem needs to establish and sustain itself.

Koalas are the headline species here and the Sunshine Coast Hinterland is critical habitat for them. Koalas are what ecologists call an umbrella species, meaning that protecting their habitat also protects the dozens of other species that share it. Species such as Greater gliders, sugar gliders, brushtail and ringtail possums, echidnas, microbats, black cockatoos, king parrots, lorikeets, tawny frogmouths and kookaburras all live in this landscape. Every tree planted here is doing work for all of them.

We are incredibly grateful to supporters of Fifteen Trees for generously sponsoring the tube stock that made this community planting event possible. Your support is helping us restore vital koala habitat and strengthen biodiversity across the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

We’d also like to acknowledge the landholders who continue caring for these trees long after the planting day is over – their ongoing commitment is essential to the long-term success of these restoration projects.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers who gave their time and energy to do something truly selfless for the environment. These events are about far more than planting trees – they build community, connection, and hope for the future.

Louise Court | Project Officer | Hinterland Bush Links

Hinterland Bush Links has been restoring native ecosystems across the Sunshine Coast Hinterland for years. The results are visible in the wildlife returning, the vegetation thickening, and the community of volunteers that keeps showing up.

A heartfelt thank you to all our ‘Subscribers for the Planet’. If you have a friend who might be interested in joining, please send along this link for more information.

Writer – Colleen B. 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.