Narrandera Landcare had a great turnout of people wanting to help on Sunday for its National Tree Day community planting. Thirty-five volunteers helped put around 800 seedlings into the ground to replace some of the vegetation lost in the last floods.

Glenn Currie from Narrandera Landcare was very happy with how the morning went.

“Our Landcare group would like to thank everyone who came along. We had Narrandera Public, Narrandera High and St Joseph’s also planting during the week so we had around 1100 seedlings planted in total. This is a great addition to the biodiversity of the Wetlands,” he said.

A mix of trees, shrubs and groundlayer seedlings were planted.

“We concentrated more on groundlayer plants this year, planting more Dianella and Lomandra which are species which survived the flooding. A thing we noticed this year is the Dianella originally planted over 10 years ago are starting to reproduce and this is what we want for the Wetlands.”

The seedlings Narrandera Landcare grew were also made available to schools in the wider area.

“Schools from Lake Cargelligo to Whitton to Barellan took up our offer of seedlings to plant for National Tree Day. Our Landcare group would like to thank everyone who helped with this project, Michael King and Landcare Australia for their grant last year, all our volunteers, Leeton Toyota and of course Peter and Josie Cirillo from Narrandera Pizzeria for treating everyone to pizzas afterwards,” said Mr Currie.

Anyone wishing to help Narrandera Landcare with the propagating of next year’s seedlings is welcome to contact narranderalandcare@gmail.com.

Narrandera school children held a very successful week of planting at Narrandera Fisheries Centre culminating on National Tree Day (NTD) July 30.

Four local schools helped in the week leading up to NTD then around 50 volunteers came along on the Sunday to add to the biodiversity of the site. Over 1000 seedlings were planted during the week.

Mr Currie was thrilled with the result of their weeklong planting.

“We started growing the seedlings for this project last spring with funding from Landcare Australia, provided by a donation from Michael King. Our aim was to grow various acacias and hopbushes and distribute them around the district to benefit the threatened Superb Parrot,” he said.

Loss of habitat from land clearing is a big factor in the cause of the Superb Parrot’s Vulnerable status. This includes the reduction of their foraging habitat as well as the loss of the living and dead hollow-bearing trees they need to breed in.

“Students from St Joseph’s, Narrandera Public, East Infants and The Clontarf Academy came for a visit to the Fisheries Centre, learnt about why we are planting to help this threatened species and then got stuck into planting, tree-guarding, and watering-in,” Mr Currie said.

“We planted a lot of groundlayer plants as well as shrubs which will benefit woodland birds in general. Then on the community morning we had a fantastic roll-up of volunteers.”

Seedlings Narrandera Landcare grew were also made available to schools in the wider area.

“Schools from Lake Cargelligo to Whitton to Barellan took up our offer of seedlings to plant for National Tree Day and were provided with resources on the Superb Parrot.

“Our Landcare group would like to thank all the staff at the Fisheries Centre who made this project possible. The help they gave with the providing and preparing the site, hosting the school groups and volunteers and putting on a sausage sizzle on the Sunday is greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank Leeton Toyota for the tremendous support they’ve given us again this year,” Mr Currie concluded.

Anyone wishing to help Narrandera Landcare with the propagating of next year’s seedlings is welcome to contact them narranderalandcare@gmail.com.  

This article appeared in the  Narrandera Argus, 1 August 2024.