Greater Sydney Landcare began our May volunteer planting sessions with a feel-good planting day in Worrell Park in the Campbelltown LGA. Trees were planted to increase habitat and canopy for the local koala population. The trees planted were also the preferred food trees for the local koalas, giving them more choices for their next meal! Some of the trees planted included, Eucalyptus pilularis, Eucalyptus crebra, Eucalyptus punctata and Angophora costata.
In collaboration with Campelltown City Council Bushcare, over 60 attendees came along (including 6 local Councillors). As the sun shone, the volunteers were able to successfully plant over 900 native trees and shrubs. Another 100 will be planted by a local childcare group later in the week, bringing the total plants added to Worrell Park Koala habitat up to 1,000.
If you want plant trees for koalas and other Aussie wildlife, check out our upcoming events on Eventbrite.
In other positive koala news, a new koala colony has been discovered in the Sutherland Shire!
While walking in their local area during lockdown, two bushwalkers started seeing koalas in the trees on their route.
“The very first tree we looked in had a koala in it,” says Steve Anyon-Smith, lockdown bushwalker turned citizen scientist.
“We started finding two or three, and then four or five, and we didn’t realise at the time ‘how are we going to keep track of whether we’ve seen the same animal?'”
The two citizen scientists went on to photograph and name nearly 80 previously undocumented koalas within Heathcote National Park!
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Landcare NSW has partnered with Greater Sydney Landcare Network to deliver the planting of 100,000 trees as part of the NSW Premier’s Priority of increasing tree canopy and green cover across Greater Sydney.
