Ballarat Car Sales breaks the stereotype so often associated with second hand cars. When local businesswoman, Rebecca Lewis opened Ballarat Car Sales, she made a promise that ‘we will only sell cars that we would sell to our own families.’ This business model is helping Ballarat drivers find a car they can trust.

2021 Plantings

A pledge to care for the environment has resulted in a further 370 trees planted thanks to Ballarat Car Sales, bringing their tally over the past four years to 1,000 trees!!

The welcomed additional 370 trees were planted out by dedicated volunteers in our ongoing project at Narmbool, Elaine on Wadawurrung country.

2019 Plantings

National Tree Day wouldn’t be Australia’s biggest tree planting and nature event without the hard work of 1000s of volunteers. Run for the past 20 years by Planet Ark in partnership with Toyota, Sunday July 28th 2019 saw a record number of trees planted across the country.

Working with Damon and Matt from the Narmbool Education Team, the boys selected and prepared a site at the historic homestead in Elaine (Vic) for us to plant with trees. The trees were sourced from Ballarat Wildplants and were a mixture of Prickly tea-tree, Everlasting tree, Swamp-gum and various wattle species such as Black wattle. All indigenous to the western plains district. We had 25 people arrive on the Sunday morning to plant. The local Scout group joined us, along with a number of families from the district and a lone traveller from Melbourne.

Fifteen Trees has been working with Rebecca Lewis and her company Ballarat Car Sales for a number of years, planting trees on Rebecca’s behalf to reduce the carbon footprint of each and very car that leaves her dealership.

Ballarat Car Sales breaks the stereotype so often associated with second hand cars. When local businesswoman, Rebecca Lewis opened Ballarat Car Sales, she made a promise that her company would ‘only sell cars that (they) would sell to (their) own families.’ This business model is helping Ballarat drivers find a car they can trust. As a result of the collaboration between Ballarat Car Sales and Fifteen Trees, 300 trees were offered to Narmbool to be planted as part of National Tree Day 2019.

2018 Plantings

As a result of this collaboration, Alfredton Primary School were able to plant 180 trees at the Kensington Wetlands and a few days later Kellie MacRae and Luke Elliott (Yarrowee Landcare members) planted another 30 trees at Garibaldi.

On 20^th of September, the year sixes were fortunate enough to take a trip down to Kensington Wetlands, where we planted some trees. It was a very quick walk there, but on the way back we took a detour to take a look at the surroundings so it took a lot longer to get back to school.

Some very helpful men taught us how to plant, protect, and water the saplings. Just like planting a flower, we took the saplings out of their pots, placed them in their pre-dug holes, and filled them up with soil.

So that the pesky little rabbits didn’t get in and destroy our trees, we built a triangular cover made of wooden stakes and plastic covers. Finally, we gave them a very good drink of water so they can grow to be healthy trees.

It was a great experience to help out the community and get out and about in the warm weather! We can’t wait to see our little saplings to grow up.

Thank you to Rebecca Lewis and Ballarat Car Sales for buying us the trees to plant.

Grade 6 students | Alfredton PS

Thank you Rebecca and Colleen for your support of our tree planting day. We wanted to vegetate our property with natives to create safe spaces and habitat for wildlife and to also improve the soil. We want to contribute to creating a better environment. And you both have made this possible.

Keli MacRae | Member | Yarrowee Leigh Catchment Group

Massive thank you to Rebecca and the team from Ballarat Car Sales. This is your support in action. All your trees (210) have found great homes. We love it when companies and businesses step up and search for local projects to support.

Thank you for finding Fifteen Trees. Sustainability Victoria (2017) states that 93% of Victorians believe business and industry should take action to be more sustainable. Ballarat Car Sales you are on trend!

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.