Bushtracks Winter 2024

There is no doubt that together, we will continue to achieve incredible impact.

In 2009 at Nardoo Hills Reserve on Djandak (Dja Dja Wurrung Country) in north-west Victoria, sunlight streamed through the green-and-white stripes of tiny petals. After closer inspection, Bush Heritage Australia field staff and scientists confirmed that this translucent-appearing species was not a ghost plant but a small surviving colony of the Robust Greenhood Orchid, thought to have been extinct since the 1940s.

Two decades ago, a group of supporters decided to give Victoria’s heavily fragmented and threatened ecosystems a better chance, by supporting our acquisition and management of Nardoo Hills.

In March 2024, via our Bush Broadcast webinar, we gathered to celebrate the positive impact our 20-year work is having on the landscape’s ecological values, which is safeguarding the orchid and many other native species.

We shed light on our deep partnership with Djaara (Dja Dja Wurrung people), who we walk together with to heal Djandak.

Our 14-year partnership continues to be an incredible shared learning experience, which you will read more about in this Bushtracks.

During the webinar, we also announced the exciting next step in our effort to reconnect and restore Victoria’s temperate woodlands, through the recently acquired Sanstrom Reserve. As I received excited text messages from our Bushie family, I felt a combination of awe and gratitude for the power of passionate people.

The anniversary took place just a month after we celebrated our Evelyn Downs acquisition – the largest in the history of Bush Heritage. Another incredible story of connectivity, the protection of cultural heritage and the power of Bush Heritage supporters to rise to our vision of impact.

Currently, we have another opportunity to come together for nature. On Goreng-Noongar Country in south-west Western Australia is a parcel of land for sale named Dodgey Downs. It sits between two national parks and has the potential to link existing Bush Heritage reserves and form part of a larger, globally significant biodiversity corridor.

Its name might be Dodgey, but there’s absolutely nothing dodgy about the biodiversity this reserve could support with our protection and management.

Thank you for your support, which allows us to meet new horizons and deliver the impact detailed in the following pages.

Enjoy,

Rachel Lowry, Chief Executive Officer.