New Trees for Farmers and Koalas, Get Yours Free!

Ballina Shire Council with WetlandCare Australia are launching a project to trial a new species of Eucalypt as a farmer-friendly Koala food tree on the Alstonville Plateau. Drooping Red Gum (Eucalyptus parramattensis) is native to the central coast of NSW and, unlike most other Eucalypts which can grow up to 50 m high, it only grows to a modest 15 m tall. It is an attractive spreading tree with a low, dense canopy and showy flowers. The compact nature of this species makes it an ideal long term windbreak tree for farms. Where other Eucalypt species may become ineffective over time as a windbreak due to excessive height, shading out crops and causing safety risks, this species can provide ongoing low foliage cover making it ideal for windbreak, shelterbelt or screening plantings.

The Drooping Red Gum is also noted as a valuable Koala food tree, favoured by Koalas within its natural range. It is hoped that when planted in the local area it can likewise provide much needed Koala habitat on the Plateau. Trees planted in farm situations such as rows of windbreak or screening plantings are known to act as valuable corridors for Koala populations in the Ballina Shire, providing an important supplement to larger tracts of remnant forest (as much as 30% of Ballina’s koala populations live in windbreaks). It is hoped that the Drooping Red Gum may prove to be popular with farmers as an on-farm planting species with multipurpose benefits which can lend value to farm amenity and Koalas alike.

In order to promote the benefits of this species and demonstrate its multiple values, Ballina Shire Council, with funding from the Australian Government’s 20 Million Trees Program, is supporting the establishment of at least 500 specimens of Drooping Red Gum at trial sites within the Alstonville Plateau region. WetlandCare Australia will be coordinating the trials and are very keen to hear from any landholders who are interested in having plantings of this promising new species undertaken on their property at no cost to them.

If you are interested to learn more, WetlandCare Australia in partnership with Ballina Shire Council and Friends of the Koala will be delivering an information session for landholders to find out more about the potential benefits that this species can provide and how to get involved with the project.

A free information session will be held on September 24^th 2015 at Alstonville Garden House at 2 pm with refreshments provided.

Landholders are encouraged to contact Senior Project Officer Laura White to find out more about the project and to register their interest for the information session or trial plantings:

1800 816 147 or

laurawhite@wetlandcare.com.au