IN CELEBRATION of World Environment Day, last Wednesday, June 5, saw thousands of native seedlings planted across regional Victoria as a part of an initiative conducted by Regional Roads Victoria (RRV).
RRV acting regional director north eastern, Nathan Matthews explained that native trees, shrubs and ground covers were planted in the Calder Woodburn Memorial Rest Area as part of the organisation’s commitment to creating a more sustainable transport network.
“Our teams have been on the ground, working hand in hand with communities, planting native species to help support the local environment,” Mr Matthews said.
In the lead up to the planting event, the RRV partnered with the Euroa Arboretum team to enable them to access the most appropriate mix of seedlings, they also worked with environmental and road safety experts to ensure the new plants would support the existing surrounding environment.
“Locally, our planting at the Calder Woodburn Memorial Rest Area aims to create a plains woodland environment, which represents the local native vegetation and includes species such as gold dust wattle and grey box.”
The Calder Woodburn Memorial Avenue is Australia’s longest eucalypt memorial avenue, stretching almost 20 kilometres along the Goulburn Valley Highway from just south of the rest area, to Kialla; it includes over 2,400 native trees commemorating those who served in World War II from Shepparton and surrounding areas.
“We always try to protect or rehabilitate the environment where possible, so we’re really pleased that the investment in our proactive planting program will make a real difference locally,” Mr Matthews said.
The planting initiative is part of RRV’s ongoing environmental commitment to plant 100,000 indigenous trees across the state by 2022.
