Two hundred trees planted in pursuit of a life-long dream

Madge Alexandra shared her “lifelong dream” of replanting a clear-cut landscape. We were excited to hear about Madge’s will to restore degraded land for today’s wildlife and for all future generations.

Last September 23, Madge and a group of friends and family got together to plant 200 eucalyptus trees.

Madge tells us that, “We have a 70-hectare farm in the Cathedral Ranges, 110 kilometers north-east of Melbourne.

We have some remnant forest, a small commercial vineyard, and about 10 hectares of grazing land that we’ve decided to reforest, both for biodiversity and also for carbon sequestration.

We’re receiving some financial help from the Federal Government to purchase seedlings.

All the preparation and planting will be done by ourselves and volunteers (mostly friends and family).

In total, we’re committed to planting 8,000 trees, shrubs, and groundcover to restore the land as closely as possible to the original native forest as it was, before it was cleared for grazing 50 years ago.

This has been a lifelong dream of mine, so it makes me very happy to achieve this project now!

This area has an abundance of birdlife and native flora and fauna, and our project will enhance and increase the biodiversity of this special place in the mountains.

As we’re also planting along the edge of the Little River, it becomes an important wildlife corridor connecting our property to other sections of forest.

This becomes an important buffer zone for wildlife.

We support a healthy population of Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Swamp Wallabies, Echidnas, Wombats, and many smaller marsupials, as well as Platypus.

The birdlife is abundant, with many species including the endangered Gang-Gang cockatoo, and yellow-tailed black cockatoo.

We want to ensure their habitat for generations to come, and if possible replace habitat that has been destroyed by land clearing.

We’ll be doing the remainder of the planting next September/October 2024, during our spring season.”

Such an incredible story!!

We look forward to seeing and hearing more about your farm in its regenerative process.

Thank you for reporting these trees and for telling us your story.

Photos below:

Line One: Eastern Grey Kangaroos (left) and Platypus (right)

Line Two: Swamp Wallabies (left) and Echidna (right)

Line Three: Gang-Gang cockatoo (left) and Yellow-tailed black cockatoo (right)