New funding win to help weed out threats to native habitat

Published on 29 July 2025

Council has welcomed $194,000 in grant funding from the Victorian Government to support its ongoing work via the Rivers to Ranges project to protect and restore native vegetation in the Watsons Creek catchment area of the Shire.

The funding, along with a contribution of $80,000 from Melbourne Water, will support Council and its partners’ ongoing collaborative efforts to control invasive weed species that threaten some of the region’s most ecologically significant areas.

It will help protect critical habitat for species such as the Rosella Spider-orchid, Matted Flax-lily and Round-leaf Pomaderris.

Mayor John Dumaresq said the project area was home to some of the most intact native vegetation in peri-urban Melbourne.

“This area is a critical refuge for threatened species like the Southern Toadlet and Powerful Owl, and includes important conservation reserves and habitat corridors,” Cr Dumaresq said.

“Invasive weeds are one of the biggest threats to biodiversity in our Shire and the wider region. The funding helps us to meet a couple of the goals from Council’s Biodiversity Strategy; to ensure our environment is healthy and to work with landholders and environmental volunteers to care for nature.”

The project will focus on early-stage weed control to stop the spread of invasive species in key areas such as Long Gully Reserve, Bunjil Reserve and Clintons Road Reserve. Weeds targeted include Blackberry, Montpellier Broom, Watsonia and Sweet Pittosporum.

The work funded by this grant will build on more than 10 years of collaboration between multiple government agencies from middle-Yarra River to the Kinglake Ranges via the Rivers to Ranges project.

The project also aims to support community education, and build resilience through long-term biosecurity planning.

For more information on the project visit, nillumbik.vic.gov.au/rivers-to-ranges

Photos from Left to Right: Rosella Spider-orchid at One Tree Hill (pic by Phil Rance), weeding under orchid cages, Dunnart under dunnart monitoring tiles (pic by Phil Rance).