Over 480 ha of significant habitat important to the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater have been protected with Trust for Nature conservation covenants or 10 year conservation agreements in North East Victoria and a further 15 ha of cleared land revegetated.

Over the next four years a further 500 ha of habitat for the Honeyeater will be protected, including 200 ha under conservation covenants as part of a new project funded by the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

The Regent Honeyeater was once widespread across south eastern Australia; however its core habitat—fertile plains with large, nectar-bearing trees like Yellow Box, White Box, and Mugga Ironbark—has been heavily cleared. An  estimated 400 adult birds remain across four key breeding areas. Only one of these areas is found in Victoria, centred on Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park, a stronghold for the Honeyeater’s southern distribution.

Now, a partnership between Trust for Nature and the North East Catchment Management Authority is protecting and expanding this key habitat. The Bush for Birds project will work with local landowners in an effort to protect and enhance Honeyeater habitat on private land. The project also aims to protect two endangered ecological  communities (Box-Gum Grassy Woodland and Grey Box Grassy Woodland) and key habitat for the endangered Swift Parrot.

Landholders within the north east project area may be eligible for grants to support them with the protection and management of habitat. Activities could include fencing of remnant vegetation, weed control, planting native trees and shrubs, ecological thinning and establishing paddock trees.

For information about projects in the north east contact Will Ford (03) 8631 5888 or willf@tfn.org.au

These forests are critical for Regent Honeyeaters which feed from the trees’ nectar and whose population could be as low as 400 nationally (most remaining populations are found in Victoria and New South Wales), making it critically endangered.

Trust for Nature has been working with BirdLife Australia to increase the birds’ habitat in the north east, revegetating 15ha of land north of Chiltern with more than 7,000 trees and 25 different species of shrubs. Local Mugga Ironbark flowering is spasmodic and unreliable, so in consultation with Regent Honeyeater experts, we trialled planting several non-indigenous native species to increase food year round. These include Hairpin Banksia, Crimson Bottlebrush, Spotted Gum, Yellow Gum and Silky Oak. The Chiltern community has been right behind the project, including students from Chiltern Primary School who helped plant on National Tree Day.

At a community event on Threatened Species Day, BirdLife Australia’s Dean Ingwersen explained the challenges facing Regent Honeyeater conservation.
Dean said nesting success has dropped from 45 per cent in the 1990s to just 30 per cent, with predation a key factor. He said while 85 per cent of fledged young survive, there is a bottleneck at the nest and egg stage because eggs and young are being predated by goannas, Squirrel Gliders, Sugar Gliders and other birds like magpies and currawongs.

Mistletoe is also a key resource for the birds in their northern range and die-off events of mistletoes have seen Regent Honeyeaters travel to coastal areas to forage. Dean emphasised the importance of community monitoring to learn more about the speciesremarkably one radio-tracked bird did a 540km round trip to Gippsland and back.

Threatened Species Day commemorates the death of the last know Tasmanian Tiger and we were reminded that not so long ago Thylacines roamed the Chiltern area, as evidenced by the nearby Yeddonba Aboriginal rock art site. We’re doing our best to make sure the same fate doesn’t befall birds like the Regent Honeyeater.

Trust for Nature has also completed the final year of plantings to re-establish the Mountain Swainson-pea, which was previously extinct in Victoria. The project has established populations of Swainsona recta on four properties that have conservation covenants in the region.

Seasons, climate and species change, so too does knowledge about the best ways for humans to manage the land. It can be hard to keep up with ‘best practice’.

North-east Victoria has it all: mountains, river valleys, open plains and forests. It covers regions such as Wodonga, Indigo, Wangaratta, Alpine and Towong and part of east Gippsland. It’s also home to nationally endangered woodlands and wetlands; most of them are on private land.

To help landholders better understand how to look after them Trust for Nature teamed up with the North East Catchment Management Authority to share knowledge through field days focused on woodlands and wetlands and ecological burning.

The woodlands and wetlands three-year project (supported by the Australian Government’s National
Landcare program) also implemented many conservation improvements including pest and weed control, fencing off native vegetation and waterways, ecological thinning and installing nest boxes.

Twenty-five land managers participated, each committing to a 10-year land management agreement to enhance their sites, totalling 480 hectares.

The project also resulted in an extra 165 hectares permanently protected by covenants in the region thanks to the commitment of five landholders. This ensures the plants and animals will be protected forever, even if the properties change hands.

Major achievements
•  25,000 metres of new fencing to protect remnant vegetation.
•  17,000 tube stock planted to improve vegetation condition and connectivity.
•  85 nest boxes installed for threatened fauna.

Photo: Lynda and Greg Oates, courtesy Jacqueline Schulz

On the edge of the Strathbogie Ranges near Avenel, Deb and Kevin Whithear have made a substantial contribution towards protecting native habitat by taking steps to put a conservation covenant over 140 ha of their property.

The proposed covenant contains steep slopes with areas of granite boulders leading towards an open plateau. Within the covenant there is also an area of White Box—Yellow Box—Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland, a community listed as critically endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The new covenant will also protect threatened species such as Tree Goanna and Hickory Wattle.

This site was initially identified through a strategic landscape prioritisation project where contact was made with landholders who were thought to have ecologically significant land. The Whithears bought the property in 1995 as a degraded sheep farm and are busy restoring some of what was once there. Having destocked the land, they have been delighted to see native plant species return.

Deb said they often thought about officially protecting the property but never got around to it, until they were approached by Trust for Nature. She said, “We received a letter from Trust for Nature seeking properties to potentially place under a conservation covenant. We thought ‘here’s the motivation we need!’ ”

This project was funded with support of the Victorian Government.

For information about projects in the north east region contact our Conservation Officer Shae Brennan on (03) 8631 5888 or shaeb@tfn.org.au.