Yallourn

Project overview

40 remnant patches across the
Yallourn buffer lands.

Beginning with the revegetation of the Morwell River wetlands north of the Princes Freeway in the Latrobe Valley, the project quickly increased to encompass the Conservation Management Plan - a broad conservation project aimed at protecting and enhancing 40 remnant patches within the Yallourn buffer lands. These sites needed to move through the native vegetation policy processes and to this day are one of the few projects to encompass all three versions of native vegetation policy commencing in 2004. These patches total 587 hectares and include wetlands, river frontages, forests, woodlands and grasslands and host a suite of rare and threatened species. The 10-year commitments relating to improving the first group of these sites was completed in 2015.

In 2006, ID Ecological Management commenced work on assessing a 150-hectare area to address current native vegetation policy. The project included 12 habitat zones and had National policy implications pertaining to the Strzelecki Gum and its protection by the EPBC Act. Offset sites were also investigated resulting in all offsets being managed on site rather than as third party off site.

Outside of the conservation areas, ID Ecological Management provides consulting and on-ground services in former mining (rehabilitated) areas and assists in the planning of rehabilitation practices. This has included the direct seeding of over 260 hectares of land since 2007 and traditional planting of a further 300 hectares. A strong focus of the works program is the completion of weed control across the site and its range of land uses to comply with the CaLP Act and remove environmental weeds.

Monitoring has been undertaken across all projects ranging from Vegetation Quality Assessments to Landscape Function Analysis. Reporting is also a significant part of this project with ID Ecological Management integral in reporting the progress of conservation works to government departments and the quarterly stakeholder engagement reports.

Activities undertaken
during this project

• Preparation and implementation of the Conservation Management Plan which was a broad plan encompassing the requirements of native vegetation policy at State and Federal levels.
• Maintenance and curation of a project specific geodatabase that recorded all plans, works and project significant outcomes.
• Ecological assessments, assessment of potential offset areas, establishment of Landowner Agreements and EPBC referrals.
• Planning, implementing and monitoring of significant direct seeding programs undertaken over a 192-hectare area over eight years.
• Planning and implementation of a pest animal management plan including transect spotlight counts, remote camera monitoring, baiting, trapping, fumigation and release of calicivirus.
• Revegetation, landscape maintenance and monitoring of two river diversion projects.
• Planning, monitoring and implementation of significant weed management programs for the restoration of former mining areas.
• Implementation of flora and fauna monitoring programs within conservation areas.

Project highlights

• The revegetation of over 25,000 individual Strzelecki Gums increasing the Nationally Vulnerable species' numbers and extent.
• Implementing a successful direct seeding program which routinely resulted in over 10,000 plants per hectare in the first year after seeding.
• Engagement with local community groups involved in bird monitoring which has resulted in the identification of 174 birds at wetland sites. 19 of these are considered threatened.
• Identification and management of habitat that hosts ten different threatened fauna species.
• Conservation of 587 hectares of native vegetation and enhanced protection of 42 hectares of native vegetation that will be protected in perpetuity.