Planting for Injured Native Wildlife

On Saturday 17^th August 2024, Greater Sydney Landcare’s Creating Canopies project and Southwest Sydney Koala Project teamed up to host a planting. The venue was the University of Sydney’s Wildlife Health and Conservation Hospital (WHCH) in Brownlow Hill in the Wollondilly Shire.

24 volunteers joined us on the day, including many faculty members from the University of Sydney and WIRES volunteers. Their mission? To plant native trees and shrubs to provide food for injured wildlife in the care of the hospital and local wildlife carers.

The plants installed will provide food for koalas, possums, birds including black cockatoos, and other native wildlife.

2,000 plants were available to be installed on the day, including companion legume species to help the long-term health of the Eucalypts.

The plants installed included:

• Hundreds of primary and secondary food trees for koalas, such as Grey gum (Eucalyptus punctata), Forest red gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis), and Woollybutt (Eucalyptus longifolia), plus supplementary koala trees like Thin-leaved stringybark (Eucalyptus eugenioides).
• Allocasuarina littoralis – a She-oak that is a food tree of the Glossy Black Cockatoo and other large parrots and cockatoos. Cockatoos feed on the cones and seeds.
• Banksia marginata – all banksias produce lots of nectar, which is appreciated by many nectar-feeding birds like honeyeaters (including the New Holland Honeyeater) and small mammals like Sugar Gliders, Feathertail Gliders and Eastern Pygmy-possums. The seeds are also eaten by cockatoos, particularly the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo.
• Syzygium smithii – Lilly Pilly – provides food for native wildlife like birds and other pollinators. Birds, including rainforest pigeons and fruit-eating species, are attracted to its small, berry-like fruits.

The volunteers also planted grevilleas, wattles (acacias) and hakeas which will benefit a range of native wildlife with their seeds, nectar and more.

The tree planters made great time and spirits remained high, despite a bit of mud from the heavy clay soil. A lot of good exercise was had by all planting across the sloped site.

About the Wildlife Health and Conservation Hospital

The WHCH is a wildlife and teaching hospital, staffed by experienced and dedicated wildlife veterinarians and nurses who work closely with rescue and rehabilitation groups such as WIRES, Sydney Wildlife Rescue, and other care groups, the public and general veterinary practices.

The WHCH provides veterinary care and rehabilitation to sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife, aiming to release them back into their native habitats.

GSL’s Koala Officer Xuela Sledge had this to add: “There is an existing wildlife clinic at the Sydney University campus, and this planting was to help with the current need for leaf. It will also be beneficial when a new $4.5 million grant extends the hospital, to help it adapt to koalas in particular, which is required from current and future impacts from road strikes, dogs, chlamydia and so on.”

We hope that in the years to come this task can be made easier by this planting.

Thank you to all involved in turning this vision into a reality.

Greater Sydney Landcare’s staff led the day, including Project Officer Alicia Harb-Akins and Bush Regenerator Rhiannon Beaton from the Creating Canopies team, and Koala Officer Xuela Sledge and Project Officer Eli Stead from the Southwest Sydney Koala Project. Greater Sydney Landcare’s Local Landcare Coordinator for the Macarthur region Vanessa Gimellaro was also in attendance to ensure a successful planting day, capturing stakeholder interviews for a promotional video.

Volunteer for Bushcare in Wollondilly

If you’d like to contribute to environmental efforts in the Wollondilly LGA, you can become a Bushcare volunteer and regenerate bushland. No experience is necessary as training is provided.

Corporate Volunteering with Greater Sydney Landcare

Find out more about Corporate Volunteering with Greater Sydney Landcare here. Be sure to download our Corporate Volunteering Info Pack.

Get Involved in Creating Canopies

If you’d like to find out how to get free trees planted on your land, visit our Register Your Site for Trees page.

Come along and plant trees with Creating Canopies. Find out what events we have coming up on Greater Sydney Landcare’s Eventbrite page.

About Creating Canopies

Landcare NSW and Greater Sydney Landcare are planting 200,000 trees as part of the Greening our City program to help reduce urban heat in Greater Sydney. Proudly funded by the NSW Government.