The Regent Honeyeater Habitat Restoration Project is a landscape-scale community effort to protect and restore all significant remnants of native woodland habitat in the agricultural district of the Lurg Hills, near Benalla, Victoria.
The Regent Honeyeater Habitat Restoration Project is a landscape-scale community effort to protect and restore all significant remnants of native woodland habitat in the agricultural district of the Lurg Hills, near Benalla, Victoria.
While focus is placed on the endangered Regent Honeyeater, many other declining birds and mammals also benefit from the restoration project, particularly the endangered Grey-crowned Babbler and Squirrel Glider populations.
The project has engaged a whole farming community, involving over 120 local landholders, and about 25,000 volunteers have come over the past 17 years to help with the massive amount of on-ground work. Together, they have protected relatively healthy remnants by fencing; restored depleted remnants by planting or direct seeding; and revegetated strategic wildlife corridors between remnants.
Propagation and mass planting days are organised each year for a thousand students from more than twenty local schools and hundreds of community volunteers from all across the state.
A range of other activities such as nest box placement and monitoring provide crucial habitat for rare mammals as well as valuable motivational experiences for visiting groups.
“The project has restored almost 1400 ha of habitat and planted close to 490,000 seedlings, establishing itself as one of the most active volunteer conservation projects in the country. There’s a lot of good news to share about these joint efforts, and our recent mapping of on-ground works really demonstrates how far we have come” explains Regent Honeyeater Project Coordinator Ray Thomas
“You can help by volunteering. Visit the Regent Honeyeater website for more details, www.regenthoneyeater.org.au. And don’t miss the upcoming nestbox monitoring weekends 24th & 25th March, and 21st & 22nd April. You'll be delighted to see some gliders asleep in their nest boxes.”
The Regent Honeyeater Project is a volunteer organisation that is co-funded by the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority and the Australian Government’s Caring for Our Country program.
For more information please visit your local Goulburn Broken CMA office at Benalla or telephone Ray Thomas on 03 5761 1515.
Regent Honeyeater, Photo: Dean Ingwersen
Squirrel Gliders, Photo: Ray Thomas
For media related enquiries please contact:
Amanda McClaren, Communications and Marketing Manager
t: 03 5820 1117 m: 0459 023 640 e: amandam@gbcma.vic.gov.au