Malabar Water Resource Recovery Facility upgrade: IndigiGrow work with Sydney Water on coast regeneration

A collaboration with Aboriginal groups from Malabar and La Perouse has saved a critically endangered native plant, which has been returned to the headland.

The $3 million dollar vegetation and fencing initiative at the Malabar WRRF which is aiming to save critically endangered plants with First Nations locals. Picture: Craig Wilson.

Aboriginal groups have joined forces with the NSW Government to save a native plant on the verge of extinction, as part of a major infrastructure upgrade.

Aboriginal owned not-for-profit native plant nursery IndigiGrow partnered with Sydney Water and local Indigenous group the Gamay Rangers on the major regeneration project to conserve the Five and Ten Corners plant – also known as “bush lollies” – at land and waters around Botany Bay.

The native species had been identified as being on the verge of extinction between La Perouse and North Head due to land clearing – and the loss of traditional land-management practices.

IndigiGrow’s Peter Cooley, who also runs La Perouse Aboriginal advocacy group First Hand Solutions, said Sydney Water brought in Aboriginal groups from the area to revive traditional land management practices at the bay.

“Sydney Water approached us because we obviously have knowledge around the plants, how [the land is] structured, and how [they] grow best,” Mr Cooley said.

IndigiGrow CEO Peter Cooley, left, and Sydney Water Project Manager Michael Massih, right, at the Malabar Water Resource Recovery Facility WRRF.

He said the Five Corners Plant – which produces edible fruit – was notoriously difficult to grow, requiring a specific environment and planting conditions to thrive.

“We quickly learned when we attempted to grow it that it wasn’t going to be an easy task,” he said.

The $3 million dollar vegetation and fencing initiative at the Malabar WRRF.

But after three years of propagation he said his team had “busted the code” to enable the plant to thrive – “and we’re putting them back out in the wild in this project for the first time ever”.

Part of a $3m dollar fencing and vegetation upgrade to the Malabar Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF), the initiative involved the planting of 35 vegetation communities including the critically endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, found at Malabar Headland.

More than five varieties of the Banksia Scrub were planted during the project, where the Aboriginal rangers helped clear the land around the Malabar facility to make way for IndigiGrow to plant the Five Corners species and other plants.

Mr Cooley said regeneration projects like this were “extremely important” because it created wildlife corridors in urban environments, reviving critically endangered plants and supporting local wildlife.

“We’re putting more than 3000 plants … which is going to provide a decent amount of habitat for your local wildlife, your pollinators, your birds, your ground dwellers,” he said.

“We want to revive these plant species because one of our cultural connections, ancient connection, is on the verge of disappearing.”

The loss of the native land cover also risked the biodiversity and wildlife of Sydney’s coast overall.

“Environmentally, and culturally, it’s really important”.