Valuing Our Volcanic Plains is a five-year $980,000 project coordinated by the Port Phillip & Westernport CMA, funded through the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme.

It combats invasive weeds and pest animals and improves land management practices on the Victorian Volcanic Plains, west of Melbourne, to help threatened native species including the Striped Legless Lizard and the matted flax lily.

The project is undertaken through strong collaboration between the Port Phillip & Westernport CMA, Hume City Council, City of Greater Geelong, Melton City Council, Corangamite CMA, Glenelg-Hopkins CMA and the Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning.

The project offers competitive incentives to private landholders to undertake land management works on their land. Engagement activities are also run to increase knowledge and awareness of threatened species and communities in the Victorian Volcanic Plains.

Working together is better than working alone

Partners involved in the Valuing Our Volcanic Plains project regularly meet to ensure collaboration in the planning and rollout of the project.

In October 2014, they gathered at the Mt Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Centre to discuss and plan the second round of incentives for landholders and a field day on the use of fire as a management tool on private land. Weed and rabbit control works are being undertaken to  protect native grasslands at this site.

The project partners include the City of Greater Geelong, Hume City Council and Melton City Council.

As well as the joint project planning, they also had the opportunity to participate in peer training where they each conducted a site assessment in the grassland areas of Mt Rothwell, then compared notes. This peer training enabled them to adopt a consistent approach to site assessments in their own council areas.