Our aim was to raise the funds to plant 730 native trees this winter/spring in the Northwest district of Tasmania. A beautiful location between Wynyard and Table Cape, on a cliff overlooking the Bass Strait. Home to the White-bellied sea eagle, the Tasmanian devil and the Eastern barred bandicoot. Plus, the endangered swift parrot is known to visit the district on its way to the mainland every winter.

But there was something very special about this project!

We were planting the trees in the shape of a huge heart!

And we did it. Over the course of 6 weeks we raised enough money to give the go ahead to the planting team.

Shoutout to Hobart Airport who came in with the funds for us to plant half the trees (365). Management at the airport annually purchase trees for Tasmanian tree planting projects. Here’s the link to their trees (650) from last year.

Ninety trees (90) were purchased by St Brigidine Community and another 60 by St Patrick’s College, Ballarat and the rest of the trees were kindly purchased by 76 individuals over the course of a 6 week fundraiser on Go Fund Me.

Also a massive shoutout to the team behind New Gen Environmental Services who actually undertook the work of mapping out the heart, organising the trees and planting.

Despite waking up to thunderstorms and rain, it turned out to be a great day with only a couple of short showers. There were only a limited number of volunteers who showed up for the day (the others who signed up were possibly deterred by the weather forecast), but we managed to plant and guard around 600 trees, shrubs and grasses on the day. Tom and I planted the remaining 130 in the days following.

Sarah and Tom Smith | Owners | New Gen Environmental Services

Over time, these trees will provide habitat trees for native animals. The trees planted at this site, are a mixture of of eucalyptus and wattles, indigenous to the area. Some of the genus’ also included, Banksia, Melaleuca, Leptospermum and Olearia. To help promote the growth and protect the seedlings, every tree was planted with a tree guard. These guards will be removed in around 18 months and reused for another planting project in the district.

We are very grateful to those who purchased the trees, as well as LandcareTAS and New Gen Environmental Services to took up the idea with enthusiasm.

We look forward to checking in on these trees next year when we once again load up the kombi, head across to the island on the Spirit of Tasmania. Stay tuned for updates.

Writer – Colleen Filippa

Colleen has a Bachelor of Environmental Science from Melbourne State College/Melbourne University. She is also the Founder and Director of Fifteen Trees (est 2009).