Lorax project 2011 winds up for another year

The UGLN's Lorax Project has finally finished for 2011.
The high demand for trees on fire affected properties and the good soaking spring and early summer rains allowed us to continue our revegetation program a bit longer than usuall.
This year we revegetated over 31 hectares by planting 9580 plants with assistance from 562 volunteers. We also potted up over 2000 plants for next years reveg program.

The volunteers came from many different community and corporate groups including stalwarts NAB and ANZ, Stiefel Laboratories, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Kinglake

Scouts, DSE, Dept of Planning and Rural Communities, Kevin Hienz Garden Centre, Christ Church Grammar School, Marcellin College and JB Were.
Our program will kick off again in Autumn 2012.
For enquiries about tree planting on your fire affected property or to volunteer phone Chris Cobern on 5736 0104.

Bicycle ride to Buxton

5 November 2010

Landcare / Treeproject Partnership

Janet & Chris from Landcare plus a small but super dedicated team from ANZ ' Group Treasury Department' helped plant around a dam in Buxton today creating frog habitat with grasses and shrubs. Just as well this was a small group of workers because Chris and Janet were rather disorganised today , We had the plants , equipment , tools and food sorted but weren't quite sure where we were meant to plant ! The landholder was not around and Cathy was out of phone contact so we played it safe and planted wetland plants around the dam and creek . 102 plants in the ground and woody weeds removed from the garden.

Action man , Liwa , rode his bicycle from Malvern to Taggerty !!!!

He left home at 6.30am and rode to Taggery via the Black Spur Road , arriving at 9.45am .
He then changed into camo working outfit and planted trees. Georgina gave him a lift back to the city at the end of the day . Paul drove from Sunbury using his navman for guidance , which was a good effort as well.

Thanks guys , it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed your company .

Lorax project winds down for 2010

The Lorax project is winding down now until next treeplanting season.

Most of our seedlings have been distributed by Chris , Cathy & Janet .
A waiting list for next years plant selection is being compiled .
Plans to seed collect for growing next years plants are being made .
Volunteers growers are being recruited.

• 13,200 seedlings were planted by volunteers this year.


• A further 12,500 plants were given to fire affected landholders for them to plant.


• 22,000 stakes were used.


• 7,600 tree guards used.


• 20 stainless steel 'hamilton' treeplanters are still in the landcare tool trailer


• 4 mallets were lost , 16 remain.


• 220 pairs of work gloves were worn out .


• A valuable partnership between Upper Goulburn Landcare Network and Treeproject has been formed.

Backyard Blitz in Wandong

September 27 & 29th 2010
ANZ Finance Dept - 17 volunteers
plus Janet & Chris.
Todays project was to finish a garden make over for Mary-Anne & Chris Mount View Rd Wandong .
The house was saved from the fire but their garden was devastated.
We planted exotic shrubs in the newly landscaped front garden and native shrubs around the fencelines . Lots of shovelling piles of mulch around the garden and watering plants in ( believe it or not the soil was quite dry ) and general tiding up .
Chris had a bad morning and travelled many kilometres before arriving at Wandong .
The he set out from home very early but unplanned for events kept cropping up ! The seedlings in Yea needed an urgent watering , Alan Stafford needed accomodation booked , the landcare equipment trailer needed to be picked up from Kinross Farm but the gate was locked and to top it all off he had a flat tyre when he finally got to Wandong . Poor Chris , he was relieved when the day was over.
Another team from the ANZ was doing a similar job for the next door neighbour the following day with supervision supplied by Treeproject

Kinross Chook Farm

Things got pretty muddy at Kinross Chook Farm at Flowerdale this September . Treeplanting days were postponed until the access trail dried out . So far 2 Volunteers groups have contributed their time to this wetland protection project . The owners of Kinross farm have decided to fence out a couple of beautifully big dams and plant around them to enhance wildlife habitat. We saw plenty of ducks and kingfishers while we were planting .

• Cathy & De from treeproject worked with the first BMS team of 12 volunteers. Muddy conditions meant the everything had to be transported to the site by wheel barrow which was a bit of a struggle . The manager gave everyone 3 dozen eggs each as a thanks present.



• Janet and Chris looked after the second team from BMS . A small be determined group of 6 who brought with them a gourmet lunch to share . 200 sedges and grasses were planted.



• This was a landcare/ DPI partnership , Peter Mitchell organised funding for the fencing . A $2000 grant from the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories paid for the plants.

Saddle Club

Sales representatives from Bristol- Myers - Squibb Pharmaceutical Company decided to conclude their Hepatitis type B1 Conference with a team building volunteer activity. These guys were from all over Australia and needed a tree planting site within 1hours drive of Tullamarine Airport . We found that perfect site at Jonathan McLean's Equestrian Center ,Combinaine.

We admired the stables and horses before doing some garden restoration work .

Tim from Treeproject helped lay out the site with Cath Olive selecting the species. Janet entertained the visitors and Jonathan told his bushfire survival story .

12 volunteers 300 plants finished by lunch time and caught the 2pm plane home to QLD

Thanks to Nicole Goode for organising this team .

Wet Feet

27/8/2010

Treeproject / Landcare Partnership Tree Planting Day.

17 ANZ volunteers

De driving the Treeproject bus .

Chris & Janet from Landcare.

Davis Property. Glenburn.

The project for the day was to plant and guard 300 understorey plants in the bare patches amongst the manna gums along the Yea River at the bottom of Gail's property. The ground was very muddy on the river flats . Luckily Gail had a good supply of spare gum boots and coats but there were some very wet feet at the end of the day . A BBQ lunch was enjoyed around the huge family table, it seated 20 people! The warm fire was also very appreciated by my cold feet.

Two Hills Road - Glenburn

20/8/2010

Treeproject / Landcare Partnership

8 ANZ Volunteers
De and Tim from Treeproject
Janet and Chris from Landcare.

300 plants for roadside screening and creek restoration at Hillary Craig's place in Glenburn.

Tree Project Sans Frontiers (with apologies to the Doctors with the same name)

Tree Project has been helping us out this Winter; they have supplied extra seedlings (we over subscribed our 28,000) and they have supplied their volunteer groups. Support from other agencies has been essential in getting our work done and Tree Project, like many others, responded to our call for help.

Successful ANZ & Landcare & Treeproject partnership continues.

July 2nd 2010
Heather and Steve Joblin were assisted in repairing their large revegetation project which was burnt by the fires in Strath Creek. 300 trees were added to the steep hill sides.
Volunteer workers included 8 ANZ bankers from Southbank in the city , Timothy from Treeproject plus Justus and Janet Hagen from Landcare. The chatter over a BBQ lunch centered around events at the World Cup Soccer .
This multi-cultural group had representatives from France, New Zealand, India, Holland, England and Paraguay as well as a few Aussies. Several pairs of shiny new gum boots were christened on the day .
Thanks for your help guys.

Tree Planting in Antarctica

Well that is what it felt like!

A team of 11 ANZ volunteers from the Docklands Human Resources department braved gale-force winds and temperatures below 5 degrees to plant 300 trees in Kinglake on Tuesday 29th July .

I think we did see the occasional snow flake fall around lunch time. Our fingers froze and our faces went numb . Everyone was extremely hungry as we huddled in Gloria and Phillip Wood's rickety old shed for a warming BBQ lunch then turned the BBQ on full to thaw our fingers.

A quick half hour of planting after lunch and then the crew headed off the ridge top with car heaters on full. Thanks girls and guy; also thanks to Gloria and Phillip for their hospitality and to Andrew from Treeproject for his efforts at the end of the day.

The ANZ at 'Tranquil Rises', Flowerdale.

Today was a Landcare & Treeproject partnership at Ray Butterworth's, Flowerdale, where we are revegetating the VERY STEEP hills at the back of the property (but we need a good pair of gloves first).






25 ANZ volunteers plus 2 Treeproject & 2 Landcare support staff managed to.....

Plant 1100 trees!
Erect a marque for Sams 40th birhday party!
Sort the Glove Box!!!

A cold and showery day but great facilities and a warm fire supplied by Ray at "Tranquil Rises" trout fishing school .


Here's a rowdy group of (GO DOGGIES!) Bulldog supporters from the ANZ bank, helping at Ray Butterworth's.