Credit: Zoos Victoria
One of Victoria’s oldest intentional communities has protected more than 180 ha to help save the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum.
The Moora Moora cooperative on Wurundjeri Country in Victoria’s Yarra Ranges, near Healesville, was established in 1974 and is home to 30 households.
The property, featuring 80-year-old Mountain Ash forests, is important habitat for the Leadbeater’s Possum, which were found on the property for the first time in 2020. Protecting more habitat is essential for saving the possum, with some researchers predicting it could be extinct within decades due to habitat loss.
One hundred and eighty hectares of the property is now protected under a conservation covenant, a legal agreement placed on the property title that protects habitat for wildlife forever.
“Moora Moora was founded with sustainability in mind. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m really pleased we can protect the natural environment on the property,” said community founder and member Peter Cock.
“Placing a covenant on the property is a commitment to making sure that when I’m gone, the land is still protected. It makes us accountable to the future and helps us to face nature rather than see it as a background. Nature also needs our partnership,” he said.
Founded in 1974 on Mount Toolebewong, the Moora Moora Cooperative Community is home to around 60 people who live on the property under a cooperative arrangement. The community includes six hamlets and a farming area.
Supported by the Victorian Government Faunal Emblems project, the covenant protects habitat for Leadbeater’s Possums and other threatened species such as Lace Monitors and Powerful Owls.
“It’s been an amazing year of learning and working together and sharing knowledge,” said Trust for Nature regional manager Ben Cullen. “I can’t wait to see the role these grads play in the future of how our natural areas are managed.
“Traditional Owners have told us they want to work more on country and want support to do that. Trust for Nature is in a position to help join those dots. The course is guided by Aboriginal people and we work with them to deliver it.”
Students from this year’s course have included descendants of Bunurong/Boon Wurrung, Wurundjeri, Tati Tati Mutti Mutti, Ngarrindjeri, Wadawurrung, Arrernte, Gunaikurnai, Dja Dja Wurrung, Ngurai illam wurrung and Yorta Yorta Peoples.
In 2021 students gained experience through conservation projects on land protected by Trust for Nature through conservation covenants and in close collaboration with Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
Students worked on protecting midden sites on the Mornington Peninsula; participated in a cultural burn at Coranderrk Station with Uncle Dave Wandin – the first cultural burn on the property in over 160 years; and built a bush food planter box, now installed on a property donated to Trust for Nature by Helen McDonald and her late husband, comedian John Clarke, on Phillip Island.
The 2021 the course was supported by the Victorian Government, Zoos Victoria and the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority. A fourth intake of the course will be run in 2022.
Media contact
James Whitmore, Communications Coordinator, Trust for Nature, 0450 653 811, jamesw@tfn.org.au
“It’s been an amazing year of learning and working together and sharing knowledge,” said Trust for Nature regional manager Ben Cullen. “I can’t wait to see the role these grads play in the future of how our natural areas are managed.
“Traditional Owners have told us they want to work more on country and want support to do that. Trust for Nature is in a position to help join those dots. The course is guided by Aboriginal people and we work with them to deliver it.”
Students from this year’s course have included descendants of Bunurong/Boon Wurrung, Wurundjeri, Tati Tati Mutti Mutti, Ngarrindjeri, Wadawurrung, Arrernte, Gunaikurnai, Dja Dja Wurrung, Ngurai illam wurrung and Yorta Yorta Peoples.
In 2021 students gained experience through conservation projects on land protected by Trust for Nature through conservation covenants and in close collaboration with Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
Students worked on protecting midden sites on the Mornington Peninsula; participated in a cultural burn at Coranderrk Station with Uncle Dave Wandin – the first cultural burn on the property in over 160 years; and built a bush food planter box, now installed on a property donated to Trust for Nature by Helen McDonald and her late husband, comedian John Clarke, on Phillip Island.
The 2021 the course was supported by the Victorian Government, Zoos Victoria and the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority. A fourth intake of the course will be run in 2022.
Media contact
James Whitmore, Communications Coordinator, Trust for Nature, 0450 653 811, jamesw@tfn.org.au