Urban Ripple:

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We are delighted that the Victorian government has seen fit to support us and our partners, the Leigh Catchment Group, in our proposal to restore native habitat along 13 stretches of the Yarrowee River and its tributaries with $701,000 through its Green Links Grant Program. The government has selected waterways as the focus of the Green Links program because of how effective it is to concentrate restoration effort upon natural drainage lines. The Alliance’s new project, Urban Ripple: Restoring our Yarrowee River and its little creeks whose germ was our “Little Creeks” project of a couple of years ago, will take place over three two and half years and will see the establishment of indigenous vegetation. The result, besides enhancing the biodiversity of Ballarat’s urban area, will be to improve amenity for the human population in a time of warming climate through the cooling effect of the trees and understorey to be planted.

A distinctive feature of this project is that plant selection is based upon the meticulous work of Ballarat ecologist, Tim D’Ombrain. Tim’s novel system of mapping native plant communities is proving to be much more accurate and precise than other systems.   We expect it to produce result in more successful restoration than other means of plant selection.

The Alliance focuses on environmental advocacy. We need local partners to do the on-the-ground work. It is most important to us, then, that the Leigh Catchment Group, Wattle Flat Landcare Group, Friends of Canadian Corridor and Friends of the Yarrowee River, among other groups, will be putting plants in the ground.

We wish to thank the Natural Resources Conservation Trust which has provided the Alliance with most of its funding since our inception five years ago until this announcement. In particular, the NRCT has enabled us to employ an Executive Officer, Jules White, for the last 12 months. It was Jules who worked with the Leigh Catchment Group to write the successful application.  

The funding was launched Friday March 1, 2024 by Hon Michaela Settle MP at the Lal Lal drain in Ballarat. Alliance and partner representatives were there to support!