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Theme 3

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The environment

Strategic objective

Our natural environment is healthy and sustainable for future generations.
 

Key figures

  • $25.7 million net operating cost
  • 47,000 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill
  • 61 hectares of area of land managed for biodiversity

Case study

Annual commitment: Implement initiatives including Backyard Biodiversity project, Wildlife not Weeds program and rollout of interpretative signage to enhance and maintain urban biodiversity sites across the municipality.

Project overview

Council’s award winning Backyard Biodiversity Project has been running since 2010. The project encourages Boroondara residents to enhance a section of their garden with indigenous plants and other wildlife-friendly features to create invaluable spaces for our native wildlife.

 In 2021, the program commenced in May and continued into June, and provided a range of offerings for participants, including:

  • a series of workshops 
  • practical activities
  • personalised advice from a landscape designer, focusing on planting with indigenous plants
  • a tour of Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-operative (VINC)
  • a voucher for 20 free tubestock plants.

Project aims

The project aims to engage residents living near Boroondara’s biodiversity corridors, as well as across the municipality, to foster a love of the local environment and learn the skills to create a small habitat garden at home.

This year, the project had a particular focus on residents living near our Balwyn North Stepping Stone Corridor. This aimed to increase indigenous tree cover, shrubs, grasses and flowering plants in local gardens, providing links for wildlife in that area to travel safely onto creek corridors and the Yarra River.

Project outcomes

It is hoped that running the program in both targeted areas and across Boroondara will improve the connectivity of our habitat corridors, as well as provide all residents the opportunity to benefit and increase uptake of indigenous gardening more broadly.

Two sets of workshops were delivered, providing tailored advice and support to 14 households in the Balwyn North Stepping Stone Corridor, and 23 households across the wider municipality. By participating in the project, residents gained the skills they needed to create a wildlife-friendly garden at home, creating valuable stepping stones for our native wildlife. 
 

Introduction