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Melbourne’s lungs a breathing space

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Volunteers helping to preserve an urban oasis once earmarked for development have seen the number of bird species soar.

Friends of the Glenfern Green Wedge has been revegetating Ferny Creek next to Gilmour Park Retarding Basin at Upper Ferntree Gully, which is part of an extensive wildlife corridor. The group has received Council funding to create a protected area for birds to nest and for revegetation with rare and endangered plant species.

President Johanna Selleck says the Friends started out as the Save the Lysterfield Valley group, working to protect the environment through the creation of a nature reserve next to the Glenfern Valley Bushlands.

“Areas like the Glenfern Green Wedge function as the lungs of Melbourne,” she says.

“It’s such joy for us and other people to have these areas in our local neighbourhoods and look after them. We face mass extinction of species and loss of habitat for various reasons, including development and climate change. We just want to protect what we have and give these species a chance to survive because it affects all us humans if we lose these species and lose biodiversity.”

On the first Sunday of each month, the group undertakes projects and bird surveys to contribute to BirdLife Australia’s database.

“That’s been wonderful because we’ve watched the birds return to the area along the creek as the vegetation established,” Johanna says. “The retarding basin, because that’s a water body, attracts a lot of migratory and rare birds. There are over 70 species of birds now that we regularly record there. We’ve got some really rare birds like Latham’s snipe, which is a migratory bird from China that flies here every year, and we see them and their families breeding in the area.”

Get involved in Knox’s volunteer environmental groups:

  • Friends of the Glenfern Green Wedge
  • Friends of Koolunga Native Reserve
  • Friends of Blind Creek Billabong
  • Friends of Old Joes Creek
  • Friends of the Gully
  • First Friends of Dandenong Creek
  • Knox Environment Society

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