PLANTING NATIVE SPECIES IS ANOTHER WAY GEMLIFE WOODEND IS MAKING A NATURAL DIFFERENCE.
They say you can never have too much of a good thing – and when it comes to welcoming beautiful native birds to GemLife Woodend, Resort Manager Tony Liversidge has more than 1000 reasons to smile.
Work has just finished on planting a wide variety of native shrubs, ground covers and aquatic plants to complement GemLife Woodend’s two forests of rare black gum trees, some of which are more than 150 years old. The program is part of a five-year plan to safeguard the endangered black gum, which is unique to the area, and reintroduce complementary native plants to encourage native wildlife to set up home.
Tony’s passion for plants goes back more than 15 years and he has thoughtfully chosen a range of native seedlings that are ideally suited to the Macedon Ranges. In time, they’ll attract wrens, finches, honeyeaters and rosellas.
The plantings include:
350 large shrubs such as the silver wattle (acacia dealbata), shiny cassinia (Cassinia longifolia) and Ozothamnus ferrugineus, also known as tree everlasting. It is a member of one of the largest families of flowering plants in Australia.
400 ground covers, including the tall sedge (Carex appressa), the pretty purple flowers of the black-anther lily (Dianella admixta) and common tussock grass (Poa labillardieri).
500 aquatic species will be planted, including the great soft rush (Juncus pallidus), the Persicaria decipiens, which is also known as slender knotweed and features small and slender pale pink flower spikes, and the Alisma plantago-aquatica, a perennial flowering aquatic plant.
Some people believe it is difficult to grow native plants but Tony says that’s a myth.
“When you choose species that are found in the local area, natives do very well indeed,” he said.
“The native plants we’ve chosen for the forest planting are able to look after themselves. Over time they’ll be one of the true highlights of living at GemLife Woodend.”
Helping Tony is a small army of keen, green-thumbed residents at GemLife Woodend who have been following the revegetation progress with interest.
“We’ve had several working bee volunteer days and residents have really enjoyed it,” he said.