From the Ground Up

GTI Australia brings you the first of a three-part story on Mark Allaway’s land restoration project in Central Victoria, on Dja Dja Warrung Country. For the past 30,000 years or so, Mark’s small holding land has been cared for by the Djaara people who knew intimately how the plants and seasons interacted enabling them to flourish and maintain their traditional lifestyle. As GTI’s Australian Coordinator, Mark learnt the key issues involved in restoring the land’s ecology to as close to its indigenous character as possible. In this article he describes the physical and cultural landscape of the land, and how he is restoring it from the ground up.

“The first points to understand are the topography and soils, and how they interact to affect plant species” explains Mark.

“Our property, Stone Jug (where we get weekend respite from the city), is a remnant ecosystem of the Victorian Volcanic Plain. It’s on the far eastern edge of the plain which is cut through by a deep river gorge of Boregam.” (insert Victorian Volcanic Plain map and pic of Boregam Gorge – Campaspe R.).

The volcanic activity lasted for 100 million years and ended about 10,000 years ago with Victoria now considered to be in a resting phase. Indigenous Australians traditionally pass on stories orally from generation to generation and these stories still reference volcanic activity.

Mark describes the land’s vegetation as predominantly Eucalypt grassy woodland which has evolved and adapted to these harsh conditions. In many places there were no trees, just grassland. The land originally held a variety of animal and plant species such as kangaroo, wallaby, grasses, rushes, lilies, sedges and herbs (yam daisy and native bramble berries) as well as a few low-lying shrubs. However, nearly all these species have been eliminated due to 180 years of cattle and sheep grazing along with cereal cropping during colonization. (Insert Plants here).

“The grasses and herbs could survive on the waterlogged and boggy basaltic soils during cold and frosty winters. Then during very dry and hot summers, the clay soils would crack and heave and tear plant roots apart in the topsoil. The plants could survive the grazing by kangaroos and wombats with soft padded feet, but they could not resist the trampling and browsing of the (hooved) introduced animals and were lost.”

Mark explains, “if you want to re-establish the woodlands, you have to begin at ground level with herbs, grasses, tussock plants and work up slowly to shrubs and then trees. The groundcover species are the mainstay of the ecological community of plants, animals and insects. The herbs, rushes and grasses provide essential food sources of pollen and seeds. Many insects, like butterflies, only reproduce on the leaves and stems of these plants. So, that is where we are focussing our attention to restore the balance. It is a slow and detailed task to collect seeds and cuttings, grow each species and plant them out, but we are determined to do our best for the sake of the grassy woodlands and the species that depend on them.”

The 2nd part of this story will explore the next phase of Mark’s restoration project which involves establishing low lying vegetation such as shrubs, and the 3rd part will cover the final stage of tree planting!