Bombora Custom Furniture, based in Torquay, VIC makes amazing handcrafted furniture out of timber. Recycled timber. The pieces are absolutely dreamy and each embodies the creative passion and ethical ethos of its creators, Luke and Alison Collins.

Since 2015, this small family enterprise has incorporated a ‘one piece – one tree’ policy as part of their business practice. For every piece of furniture created, Fifteen Trees plants a tree.

We take sustainability and being eco-responsible very seriously and are constantly reviewing our business practices to ensure that our only impact is to make the environment better.

Luke and Alison Collins | Owners | Bombora Custom Furniture

These plantings help to reduce the environmental impact of freight and general equipment maintenance associated with running a business. In fact, as the pieces themselves are crafted from recycled and often locally sourced timber, Bombora is arguably creating a net benefit to the environment, something for us all to aspire to.

Bambra Bushland Reserve, VIC | 50 trees | 2025

The native trees, shrubs and grasses were planted at the old Bambra Tip site, located in Bambra Bushland Reserve (managed by Parks Vic.) Gadubanud country. This tip was created after the Ash Wednesday fires for landholders to dispose of burnt fences and damaged property. The tip was capped years ago but was overrun with pasture weed. Members of the East Otway Landcare Group (EOLG) been working to rehabilitate this site since 2020 with the aim to turn it back into the healthy bushland that surrounds it.

Twenty-seven (27) people attended the planting day. Which is a great turnout for the small community and very important for community connection as there is always a deep sharing of knowledge that occurs through working together and sharing morning tea. ‘These planting days are particularly crucial in years like this one, our region has been in/is in terrible drought and everyone has so much to do on their own properties. To see people still make the time to come and care for public land is very heartening and hopeful and makes us all feel like we’re going through these tough times together’. Cara.

Some of the species planted on the day included, Sweet bursaria, Messmate, Narrow leaf peppermint, Hop goodenia, Dogwood, Snowy daisy, Red anther wallaby grass, Pale rush, Black wattle, Blackwood, Scent bark, Swamp gum, Tall sedge and Red fruit saw sedge.

We are incredibly grateful for the support we received. We were able to get plants in the ground this season, the species all grown from seed collected locally and selected to support biodiversity and habitat creation. Having a local business invested in the health of remnant bushland is such a hopeful act and inspires us to keep plugging away. It has been such a lovely exchange for our group and a new way of working, as we are generally reliant on grants through government bodies to help us continue the work we do. We hope to have the opportunity to work in this way again.

Cara Johnson | President | East Otway Landcare Group

The group are mending small, degraded patches of bushland with great success and by carefully selecting the right plants for the right places, this project is contributing to a healthy seedbank while caring for crucial wildlife refuge (the Bambra bushland).

At the site, gang gang cockatoos regularly visiting to feed on messmate flowers, there are bandicoots, echidnas, swamp and bush rats, countless birds and powerful owls feed in the reserve. In the past few years, there have been sacred kingfishers nesting in the bushland The tip site seems to be a haven for tiger snakes, which are welcomed, and where there are snakes there are frogs and lizards. Every plant, animal and bird is precious in this area and the group do everything they can to protect them and prioritise habitat.

Brisbane Ranges, VIC | 100 trees | 2022

This year, we planted 100 of Bombora’s trees in the beautiful district of the Brisbane Ranges, VIC. less than an hours drive north of their hometown of Torquay. The planting was coordinated by Robert Hall from the local Landcare group. The trees were a mixture of local species of Acacia, Banksia, Bursaria and Eucalyptus.

The planting site was on the Geelong-Ballan Road, on northern side of the Brisbane Ranges National Park. On Durdidwarrah Land. The planting group worked with a Land Management Consultant to help develop a plan, with particular emphasis on planting indigenous vegetation. In time, this site will be a thriving native corridor for the local population of koalas, echidnas, reptiles, kangaroos and wombats, as they make their way to and from the National Park nearby.

A sea of well protected seedlings, all containing future koala habitat trees.

Bellarine Peninsula, VIC | 100 trees | 2021

Carrying on their dedication to planting trees for protection of our natural world, 2021 saw another 100 trees planted for Bombora at Bellarine Peninsula in a protected Ramsar wetland and threatened Coastal Saltmarsh vegetation site.

Providing productive habitats for a wide range of species, including migratory shorebirds, plus supporting commercial and recreational fishing, Australia’s mangroves and saltmarshes are ecologically important ecosystems linking the land and sea.

What many are unaware of the fact that mangroves and coastal wetlands annually sequester carbon at a rate two to four times greater than mature tropical forests and store three to five times more carbon per equivalent area than tropical forests. Most coastal carbon is stored in the soil, not in above-ground plant material as is the case with tropical forests.

Wangoon, VIC | 100 trees | 2019

Bombora has recently purchased 100 trees through Fifteen Trees. These were headed to a property near Wangoon, Warrnambool. The site is an ex-pine plantation, and the revegetation project is designed to alleviate the harm a monoculture tree crop can do to the soil, and to the surrounding biodiversity in general. Hopkins Falls Landcare Group hopes the planting, which contains many Manna Gums, will help build resilience in local fauna. The local koala population for example, indigenous to the nearby Framlingham forest, desperately needs more habitat corridors in the surrounding landscape. Diverse tree and shrub corridor plantings enable a wide range of species to broaden their horizons, giving them some protection against food scarcity and disease, habitat threats like fire or flood, and allow new family groups to emerge and thrive.

Care, respect, and love for the natural world is evident in every beautifully waxed and immaculately crafted piece of furniture Luke makes. It is so heartening to know that that same care, respect and love for nature extends to the Collins’ business practices. The ‘one piece – one tree’ undertaking gives the old wood itself – the very heart of Bombora – new life. And that new life will go on to benefit and strengthen fragile ecosystems for decades into the future.

Murrindindi Shire | 100 trees | 2015

Bombora Custom Furniture is an Australian family-owned business run by husband and wife team Luke and Alison Collins.  The timber furniture is hand crafted in Torquay on the Victorian Surf Coast. A quick look at the website will show you just how beautiful their furniture is and how creative this couple are.

Alison contact Fifteen Trees asking for 100 trees to be planted on the behalf of their customers. A lovely and generous gesture. Bombora trees were planted up in the shire of Murrindindi Shire of central Victoria in September 2015.

Bombora trees have gone to a hilly site here at Flowerdale. The area was completely fenced off to exclude stock and protect seedlings. The hill we choose to plant on had less than two dozen remnant trees such as Red Stringybark, Yellow Box, Victorian Blue Gum and Long Leafed Box. It is now shaping up. The fire of 2009 swept through this area, however it is slowly being re-vegetated and restored. Thank you Bombora for your kind donation of trees. We were delighted to receive them.

Steve Joblin | Landcare Coordinator | Flowerdale

 

Thank you Alison and Luke for finding Fifteen Trees and for your wonderful idea of giving your customers a living gift in return for their patronage.

Writer- Sarah Hart

Sarah is an artist whose passions include the stories and experiences of women and narrative driven work. Her aim is to delight, to reveal glimpses of everyday beauty and to celebrate flights of the ordinary. Sarah works across a range of media, with an abiding interest in pen and ink, mixed media and the human form. You can find Sarah here.