Winter edition 2026:
- A warm welcome
- A brighter future for bandicoots
- Seeds for success
- Bird's eye view for better burns
- Filling dams for frogs
- Species spotlight — large-fruit groundsel
| |
|
A warm welcome
At a community event at Cranbourne Gardens in Melbourne’s south-east, southern brown bandicoots received $4.46 million from the MSA Program for a new habitat corridor that will protect and connect the nationally endangered critters.
Cranbourne Gardens is one of the last remaining strongholds for the southern brown bandicoot. The species is among the ‘matters of national environmental significance’ protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and supported through the MSA Program’s conservation outcomes.
In this issue, we dig deeper into the significant plants, animals and ecosystems protected under the MSA Program, including a spotlight on the delicate large-fruit groundsel. This critically endangered daisy is thriving in MSA conservation areas, casting hope for other fragile species.
We also take a closer look at other ways we support threatened species, through a planned burns program, boosted by drone technology and a successful seed harvesting project. Grab a cuppa and read on to find out more!
The 'Nature next door' MSA Program is the nation's largest urban conservation program, developed to ensure we balance the need for housing in Melbourne's new growth areas with the need to protect threatened species found in these areas.
The program ensures that development within Melbourne's growth areas follows Victorian and Australian environmental laws and streamlines the environmental approvals process, saving time and money. The program is delivered by the Victorian Government's Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA).
| |
Image: Cranbourne Gardens' Eilish Roberts and Clare Hollebone welcome visitors to the Big Bandicoot Backyard event 2026A brighter future for bandicootsSouthern brown bandicoots have received a boost to their future survival with $4.46 million from the Nature Next Door MSA Program for a new, 4-hectare habitat corridor.
The announcement took place at the 20th anniversary of the Australian Garden at Cranbourne Gardens over the Easter school holidays. The celebration included a 3-day Big Bandicoot Backyard event attracting almost 5,500 people to a range of fun-filled activities at the Gardens and raising awareness for the endangered southern brown bandicoot.
The new corridor will reconnect fragmented landscapes around Cranbourne and strengthen the species’ long-term survival as Melbourne grows, with habitat construction expected to start in 2027. It is one of four corridors to be established under the MSA’s Southern Brown Bandicoot Program.
Bandicoot project partner City of Casey provided an extra $418,224 in support and Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation is guiding the cultural and ecological design of the corridor including plant selection, cultural heritage protection and appropriate signage.
Southern brown bandicoots are incredible eco-engineers. A single bandicoot can turn over 3.9 tonnes of soil a year, helping spread beneficial fungi, increasing nutrient turnover, and improving water penetration into the soil. The new habitat corridors will help to protect and connect bandicoots.
The species is already thriving at The Briars on the Mornington Peninsula, where a population has more than tripled since the release of 21 southern brown bandicoots there two years ago.
The bandicoots were translocated from Koo Wee Rup and East Gippsland, with the aim of establishing a secure and genetically diverse population, through a partnership between DEECA, University of Melbourne, Deakin University and Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
The Southern Brown Bandicoot Program has now reached over 31,000 people with bandicoot displays, public events, presentations, workshops, guided walks and incursions, thanks to support from engagement partner Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Cranbourne Gardens).
Image credit: Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria – Cranbourne Gardens
| |
Image: Parks Victoria's rangers harvesting seed in the Western Grassland Reserve (left) and basalt podolepis (Podolepis linearifolia) (right)
Seeds for success
Parks Victoria has greatly increased its seed harvesting efforts to support restoration of critically endangered native grasslands in the Western Grassland Reserve area.
During the spring and summer of 2025–2026, as the colours of the grasslands shifted, Parks Victoria’s Western Grassland Reserve rangers set out with specialist equipment to harvest a range of native seed populations.
A total of 220 kilograms of seed was collected across 18 hectares of grassland, more than double the largest harvest of the past four seasons (101 kilograms in 2022–2023). The team uses two mechanical harvesters, along with hand-collection, to gather the seeds.
This year’s harvest included winter-growing wallaby, spear and tussock grasses, summer-growing grasses, kangaroo grass, silky blue‑grass and red‑leg grass along with native forb species, pussy tails and basalt podolepis. These species traditionally thrived across the Victorian Volcanic Plains, but now only occur in small remnant patches.
The collected seed will support restoration projects throughout the reserve. It will be spread into new areas of the reserve to boost plant diversity or supplied to local nurseries to raise seedlings for future plantings. Together, these efforts help expand and strengthen the native temperate grassland community across the reserve.
To date, the MSA Program has secured 29% of the 15,000-hectare Western Grassland Reserve, meaning more than 4,000 hectares has been permanently protected for some of our most threatened species.
Find out more about native grasslands and the Western Grassland Reserve by watching presentations from Dr Steve Sinclair and Dr Cindy Hauser, from the Arthur Rylah Institute, at this year’s Australian Association of Bush Regenerators’ Grassland Resurrection event.
Image credit: Parks Victoria
| |
Image: A drone supporting planned burn activities
Bird's eye view for better burns
Drone technology is transforming land management across MSA conservation areas and reserves, enabling more targeted and efficient delivery of planned burns.
A huge asset in fire management, weed control and environmental monitoring and research, drones have become a reliable tool in preparing for the fire season and ecological burns activities.
MSA partner Wyndham City Council is already an award-winning pioneer in drone tech, having scooped a Local Government Professionals’ Award for Excellence this year, for its use of smart technology to identify and control weeds in the Western Grassland Reserve area.
During the 2025–2026 season, DEECA’s Forest Fire Operations Division (FFOD) and its partners doubled their burns program with the help of specialised drones and trained pilots, providing precise aerial ignition, navigating smoky areas with ease and streaming real-time imagery and thermal scans to support smarter, safer burns.
These hi-tech helpers called Remote Piloted Aircraft Systems, offer a bird’s eye view of the landscape, live-streaming burns activity back to trained crew on the ground, allowing them to quickly and safely adjust how they are lighting and managing a site.
A spokesperson for FFOD said the use of remotely piloted aircraft systems has significantly improved the delivery of ecological burns in grasslands. With their proven benefits, FFOD plans to expand their use at suitable sites.
A total of 1,075 hectares was burned in the spring and autumn of 2025–2026 to support regeneration and ecological resilience for many threatened plant species at MSA sites in Eynesbury, Mambourin, Deanside, Wollert, Mickleham, Balliang and Truganina.
FFOD partners with the MSA Program, Traditional Owners, Parks Victoria and the Arthur Rylah Institute to deliver seasonal burns. To search planned burn locations, or subscribe to information about planned burns, visit Planned burning in Victoria.
Image credit: FFOD, DEECA
| |
Image: Before (left) and after (right) photos of the dam watering projectFilling dams for frogsIn 2025, Melbourne Water delivered environmental water to three empty farm dams in Kalkallo, north of Melbourne, transforming them into seasonal wetlands to support the threatened growling grass frog (GGF).
The Melbourne Water team harvested stormwater from a nearby treatment wetland for the first time and trucked it to the dams to help re-establish aquatic vegetation, before topping up in spring before the breeding season. This approach provided a cost-effective and practical interim watering solution.
RMIT University’s Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership was used to analyse the stormwater’s sediment and water quality and assess contaminant risks and found that it was suitable for the GGF wetland. This research will inform planning and harvesting of alternative water sources for future GGF habitat wetlands.
Melbourne Water field crews monitored habitat condition and frog presence and collected data to inform DEECA’s growling grass frog occupancy modelling. During a night-time survey in November, the crew observed one male growling grass frog calling from the dense submergent vegetation that had developed in the largest of the three new wetlands — an encouraging early sign that the habitat was already supporting the species.
The Kalkallo watering project demonstrates how existing infrastructure can provide valuable interim habitat while new wetlands are being developed. Over the next two years, the MSA Program and Melbourne Water will start constructing permanent GGF habitat wetlands designed to provide high-quality breeding habitat for this threatened species.
The first of these wetlands has been completed in Aintree, north of Melbourne, with a further 24 wetlands planned across Melbourne’s growth areas.
Image credit: Melbourne Water
| |
Image: Large-fruit groundsel (Senecio macrocarpus)Species spotlight — large-fruit groundsel Big by name but little by nature, the large-fruit groundsel Senecio macrocarpus) is one of 12 species and ecosystems monitored and protected through the MSA’s specific conservation outcomes.
A vulnerable ‘matter of national environmental significance’ under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and listed as ‘threatened’ under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, the species is found scattered across south-east Australia but believed to be extinct in Tasmania.
This small, perennial daisy is largely found in South Australia with a sprinkling of plants in the grassy woodlands and grasslands of Victoria. Recognisable by its grey-green foliage and yellow flowers, the plant has distinctive fluffy, large white daisy-heads.
Since the publication of a National Recovery Plan for the species in 2010, which noted around 35,000 plants detected between the 1980s and early 2000s, monitoring shows positive results that the species is not only surviving, but thriving, in pockets of the MSA area.
In 2021, the population at Little Raven in the Western Grassland Reserve area was 12 known plants, but numbers rocketed to 243 in 2023, largely due to a favourable wet season, and demonstrates the species’ capacity to respond strongly when conditions are right.
To further strengthen the population, Parks Victoria planted around 1,000 large-fruit groundsel seedlings into the Western Grassland Reserve area in spring 2025. Monitoring undertaken the following autumn found that around 60% of the seedlings had survived, with many flowering and dropping seed. A further 2,000 plants are expected to be planted in early spring 2026. Find out more about the other species protected under the MSA Program.
Image credit: Dr Steve Sinclair, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research
| |
|
|
|
|
