Jacksons Creek restoration is Sunbury’s biggest land management project
A 10.5km section of this famous creek is being transformed from weed-infested paddocks and ridge tops to pristine nature reserve.
North West
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A 10.5km section of Jacksons Creek from the Nook to Emu Bottom Wetlands is being transformed from weed infested paddocks and ridge tops to pristine nature reserve.
The Jacksons Creek Restoration Project, managed by the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority, could be Sunbury’s biggest ever community land management project.
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It’s the silver lining for the controversial residential development set to be rubber-stamped in two precinct structure plans to apply to Sunbury, including the Jacksons Creek Valley project to be development by Villawood Properties.
The CMA, armed with $300,000 in funding from Our Catchments, Our Communities last year, is leading the rejuvenation of the vast site, much of it on Salesian College land.
The first year of work has seen 96ha of weed control, 198ha of rabbit control and 49ha of grazing land revegetated with indigenous species.
There has also been a traditional burn carried out by the Wurundjeri’s Narrap Land Management Team.
Project manager Robert Hall told the Leader work so far had concentrated on tasks including bulldozing rabbit warrens and boxthorn outbreaks, spraying weeds and baiting rabbits.
While there was more invasive species management to occur, the shift would soon turn to concerted planting — the hope and expectation about 80 per cent of more than 23,000 plantings planned this year to survive.
“Landcare groups are the future stewards of this work and we hope to get a whole new generation of landcare volunteers to support this work,” he said.
Friends of Emu Bottom Wetlands Reserve Christina Cheers said the sheer scale of the project meant more landcare volunteers would be needed.
“The best thing to come from the rezoning process is that this land which no one has got to enjoy for over a century becomes a public asset we can all enjoy,” she said.
“People that join landcare now if they focus on this project have a lifetime’s work ahead of them.
Sunbury state Labor MP Josh Bull said the environmental work carried out along Jacksons Creek would bring lasting benefits especially as residential development surged.
A planting day will be held this Sunday.
CHECK out the Friends of Emu Bottom Wetlands Facebook page.
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