Community Action Guide

Email Tips:

• Use your personal email address
• Include your full name and suburb
• Make it personal – share your connection to the area
• Include relevant facts from below

Target: Jacinta Allan, Member for Bendigo East
Email: [email protected]
BCC: [email protected] (so we can track community support)

Premier Jacinta Allan

Role: Premier of Victoria
Phone: (03) 9651 5000
Email: [email protected]
Office Address: Office of the Premier, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne, Victoria 3002
Why Contact: As Premier, Jacinta Allan has ultimate responsibility for government policy direction and budget allocation for new national parks.

Minister Steve Dimopoulos

Role: Minister for Environment
Phone: (03) 8624 3101
Email: [email protected]
Electorate: Oakleigh
Why Contact: As Environment Minister, Steve Dimopoulos directly oversees Parks Victoria and environmental protection policies, making him a key decision-maker for national park proposals.

How to Find Your Local MP

• Visit the Victorian Electoral Commission website: vec.vic.gov.au
• Use the "Find My Electorate" tool
• Enter your address to discover your state electorate and MP

Get Contact Details

• Visit parliament.vic.gov.au/members
• Search for your MP by name or electorate
• Find their phone number, email, and office address
• Note their party affiliation and any relevant portfolio responsibilities
• Many MPs have both electorate offices (local) and parliamentary offices (Melbourne). Contact the electorate office first as they handle local constituent issues.

When to call: Best times are between Tuesday to Thursday: 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Avoid Mondays (catch-up day) and Fridays (travel/electorate work) and parliamentary sitting weeks for better availability.

Preparing for Your Call

• Have a look at the resources below that list out all of the reasons that these parks are important.
• It helps to make notes of what you want to focus on and to add your personal perspective and connection.
• Have a pen ready so you can take notes of what the staffer says. Note down: Date and time of call, the staff member you spoke with, any commitments or follow-up actions promised.
• Be Persistent but Respectful and polite to staff members
• You can call multiple times if needed
• Stay focused on the issue and Don't take initial "no" answers as final

Sample script for your local MP

"Hello, my name is Sarah Johnson and I'm a constituent from Ballarat calling about establishing new national parks in Victoria's central west. I'm calling to urge [MP's name] to support the creation of these parks because... our region has incredible biodiversity that needs protection, and national parks would bring significant tourism benefits to our local communities. I'd like [MP's name] to champion this in parliament and make sure funding is allocated in the next budget. As someone who regularly hikes in the Wombat Forest area, I've seen firsthand how important these landscapes are for wildlife and recreation. Can I expect [MP's name] to support new national park initiatives in our region?  Is there anything else I can do to help make this happen?"

Sample script for key decision-makers

"Hello, my name is Sarah Johnson and I'm a Victorian resident from Ballarat calling about establishing new national parks in Victoria's central west. I'm calling to urge [Premier/Environment Minister] to immediately legislate the promised parks because...  As someone who regularly hikes in the Wombat Forest area, I've seen firsthand how important these landscapes are for wildlife and recreation. Is there anything else I can do to help make this happen?"

What to Expect

• Staff may take your details and pass on your message
• You might be asked to put your concerns in writing
• Some offices provide standard responses about government policy

Send written follow-up

• Email a brief summary of your call
• Attach any relevant information (maps, studies, photos)
• Thank them for their time
• Reiterate your key requests

For the most direct impact, consider requesting a face-to-face meeting with your local member of parliament.

Personal meetings carry significant weight in political decision-making.

How to request a meeting:

• Contact the electorate office
• Email your MP with “Meeting Request” in the subject line
• Explain you’re a local resident who would like to discuss the importance of protecting nature in new national parks
•  Be flexible with timing and prepared to meet at the electorate office

Meeting preparation:

• Bring personal stories about why the forest matters to you
•Use the talking points from the email section above
• Consider bringing photos or evidence of the forest’s importance
• Invite other community members to join you for greater impact

Contact your local newspapers to raise public awareness:

• Use the same talking points as the email template
• Keep it under 250 words for best chance of publication
• Include your name and suburb
• Focus on one or two key points rather than covering everything

To:
BCC: [email protected]
Subject:

Dear Minister Allan,

My name is [Your Full Name] and I am a resident of [Your Suburb], Bendigo. I am writing to urge you to swiftly create and implement the additions to the Greater Bendigo National Park (3,152 hectares) and Bendigo Regional Park (3,949 hectares).

As someone who regularly walks in the Wellsford Forest with my family, I’ve witnessed firsthand the incredible diversity of birdlife – it’s truly a sanctuary that hosts 165 different bird species. Knowing that this forest is home to 32 rare or threatened species, including Brush-tailed Phascogales and Barking Owls that have lived here for millennia, makes its protection even more urgent.

Without new park status, 99 areas are set to be logged in the central west, including 6 areas in the proposed Bendigo Regional Park. We cannot afford to lose one of Victoria’s largest and best condition Box-Ironbark forests when it’s right here on our doorstep.

Victoria’s parks contribute $2.1 billion annually to our economy and support 20,000 jobs. New parks would create employment in our regional area while preserving our natural heritage for future generations.

This would represent the largest creation of new national parks in over a decade. I call on you to seize this momentous opportunity and create new national parks for Wellsford and the broader central west region.

Thank you for representing our community’s interests in protecting these precious natural areas.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Suburb], Bendigo

How nature benefits from being protected in new national parks and why we need them

• In June 2021 the Victorian Government committed to three new national parks, two conservation parks, and seven new and expanded regional parks. They accepted expert advice that 60,000 hectares of forest across Wombat and Wellsford Forests, the Pyrenees and Mount Cole deserve proper protection.

• The forests of the central west are extraordinary. They’re refuges for wildlife and people, places of connection to Country for First Nations communities. An incredible variety of life call them home – including over 380 rare and threatened plants and animals. Threatened wildlife like Greater Gliders, Brush-tailed Phascogales, Powerful Owls, Mt Cole Grevilleas, Lace Monitors, Mountain Skinks, Swift Parrots and Emerald-lip Greenhoods depend on these forests.

• National parks are one of the most effective ways to keep nature safe. They connect and protect wildlife habitats and whole landscapes.

• Victoria has cleared and settled more of its original forests, grasslands and wetlands than any other Australian state.

• Victoria has the highest number of threatened wildlife by subregion in the country. We must give landscapes and habitats stronger protection – like creating the promised central west national parks.

• Permanently protected habitats are the backbone of efforts to stop the destruction of our natural web of life. Please create the promised central west national parks.

• Our national parks and conservation reserves keep wildlife and habitats safe. They create and purify water, clean our air, store climate disrupting pollution and ease the risk of floods.

• Victoria's national parks and protected areas support livelihoods, give refuge and safety to wildlife, help ease the impacts of climate disruption, and protect waterways and drinking sources.

• National parks are proof that citizen advocacy, smart legislation and bipartisan cooperation can keep our natural treasures safe and strengthen communities and livelihoods for generations to come.

• National parks enjoy 54 million visits and safeguard threatened wildlife from extinction (state forests get 16 million visits a year).

• We know that Victoria has an extinction problem. We know that national parks are an effective and proven mechanism for long-term protection and tackling extinction.

• The new national parks, together with new conservation parks, nature reserves and bushland reserves, will protect important habitat connectivity for rare and threatened animals, plants and insects.

• New national parks help reduce the impacts of climate disruption by trapping millions of tonnes of stored carbon.

• Four years is a very long time for threatened wildlife without the protection of habitat from threats like mining and logging.

• National parks protect wildlife and habitats from extractive industries like commercial logging and mining. Even though native forest logging has ended in Victoria, it could be reinstated with the stroke of a pen.

• These new national parks support rural and regional livelihoods through visitation and nature-based tourism.

• New parks will protect significant headwaters of important rivers including the Moorabool, Werribee, Lerderderg, Maribyrnong and Wimmera.

• New central west national parks will protect river headwaters that flow from these forest habitats. So important to create water security for farms and communities.

• When the new parks are created, over 380 rare and threatened plants and animals, Brush-tailed Phascogales, Mt Cole Grevilleas and more, would be safe from the threat of logging, mining and other damaging industries.

• These forests and woodlands are fragmented remnants of bush, surrounded by a sea of cleared farmland. An incredible variety of life call them home – including over 380 rare and threatened plants and animals.

• When the new parks are created, they’ll protect the headwaters of important rivers and help ease the impacts of climate breakdown.

• Protecting Victoria's forests is critical for wildlife, water, climate, community wellbeing and tourism.

• Victoria's parks contribute $2.1 billion a year to the economy, support 20,000 jobs and create employment opportunities in regional areas.

• As Victoria’s population continues to grow, we need more natural areas for respite and recreation.

• These new parks, easily accessible to the west of the state, are greatly needed, particularly for the western and northern suburbs of Melbourne.

• National polling shows that most Australians do not want to see prime protected areas like national parks compromised by commercial or large-scale development.

• Our elected representatives must leave a legacy of creation, not destruction. To keep safe what we can never replace. Legislate the Wombat-Lerderderg, Mount Buangor and Pyrenees national parks without further delay. Formally protect the Cobaw Conservation Park, Wellsford Forest and other reserves.

• Recent polls show that 89% of Australians agree that national parks are one of the best ways to protect nature in Australia. Some 91% agree that national parks and conservation areas are desirable to protect nature from resource extraction including logging, mining and fishing.

• New parks for the Wombat and Wellsford forests, Mount Buangor, Mount Cole and the Pyrenees Ranges are designed so that almost all forms of recreation, including dog walking, fossicking and prospecting, can be done in the right places.

• Whether winding through cool forested gullies on foot in Wombat Forest, photographing resident robins in the Wellsford Forest, or soaking in the sunshine on a mountain peak in the Pyrenees, our national parks and protected areas have a nurturing place for all of us.

• New central west parks support joint or co-management of parks by First Nations and Traditional Owners.

• This would be the largest creation of new national parks in over a decade – a momentous occasion for the Allan Government.

• Recommendations for the central west national parks were handed to the government way back in June 2021, meaning the time taken to eventually legislate them is the longest in the state’s history. It’s time to stop the unnecessary waiting and get the job done!

• Many bird species across Central Victoria are declining because of habitat destruction, fragmentation and degradation. To truly protect them, the new central west national parks and reserves must be legislated.

• In the global context, more than 115 countries, including Australia, have signed on to 30 by 30 initiative – a global target to protect or conserve at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean areas by 2030.

INFO: MT COLE AND MT BUANGOR NATIONAL PARK AND SURROUNDS 

Note: These parks are on the Traditional Lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung, Wadawurrung, Wotjobaluk, Djab Wurrung and Eastern Maar. The First Nations name, Bereep-bereep, means wild.

• To the west of Avoca is the future Pyrenees National Park, stretching out to Landsborough Hill. South of Elmhurst is the future Mt Buangor National Park, comprising the existing Mt Buangor State Park plus Mt Cole State Forest and other areas. 

• The new Mount Buangor National Park is so important to protect surviving populations of flame-red Mt Cole Grevillea, a threatened plant found nowhere else on earth, and the threatened Grampians Bitter-Pea.

• The future Mount Buangor National Park will keep native forest logging away from the popular Beeripmo Walk, a two-day walk that winds its way through the Mt Cole and Mt Buangor area.

• Mount Cole/Bereep Bereep has an amazing range of wildlife. The new Mount Buangor National Park will keep safe Agile Antechinus, Swamp Wallabies, Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Common Brush-tailed Possums, White-winged Choughs, Grey Shrike-thrush, Grey Currawongs, Spotted Pardalotes, Gang-gang, Sulphur-crested and Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, Tawny Frogmouths and Southern Boobook Owls.

• Some 130 species of birdlife have been recorded at Mount Cole – it’s so important to keep their habitat safe in new protected areas.

• The future Mount Buangor National Park is going to be amazing. Rich with bushwalks routes, camping facilities, wildlife, beautiful tree ferns, majestic tall trees and several waterfalls. All protected, forever.

• The future Mount Buangor National Park will protect 130 different native birds, nine threatened animals, 13 threatened plants, three endangered vegetation types and two vulnerable vegetation types, under-represented elsewhere in Victoria’s formal reserve system.

• The promised Mt Buangor National Park is critical to the survival of the gorgeous Blue-winged Parrot. One of Australia's newly listed threatened species which VNPA citizen scientists have observed in the canopies of Mt Buangor’s forests. Once common and widespread, the Blue-winged Parrot is now on the flight path to extinction, largely due to current and past habitat clearing.

• We'd like the rolling hills of Mt Buangor, Mt Cole and the Pyrenees to be filled with birdsong and large old trees. We'd like to seek refuge in their cool, shady forests on those hot summer days in rural Victoria. That's why we'll continue to fight for the promised central west national parks.

Info: Wombat-Lerderderg National Park and surrounds

Note: These parks are on the Traditional Lands of the Wurundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung. 

• In 2019, the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council recommended the creation of the Wombat-Lerderderg National Park (comprising the existing Wombat State Forest and Lerderderg State Park), as well as new and expanded regional parks. 

• The future Wombat-Lerderderg National Park is a vital refuge for Greater Gliders, Australia’s largest flying mammal (growing to one metre long). 

• Brush-tailed Phascogales – named for their large ‘toilet brush’ tail – are a captivating marsupial that call the future Wombat-Lerderderg National Park home. They prefer open, drier forests with plenty of hollow-bearing trees with fibrous (‘stringy’) bark and decaying logs to nest and forage for insects and small invertebrates. Generally, these features are found in long-unburnt forests. Brush-tailed Phascogales are Vulnerable in Victoria and would be protected in the future Wombat-Lerderderg National Park.

• Common Wombats live in the future Wombat-Lerderderg National Park! They’re mostly solitary but can have overlapping home ranges and share burrows. Most of the time they're active from dusk until dawn, but sometimes in cooler weather they come out to forage during the day. They eat tussock grasses, rushes, sedges, fungi, mosses, roots and tubers. They’re got square poo and can defend themselves by crushing the heads of pursuing predators into the roof of their burrow using their bum. 

• The new Wombat-Lerderderg National Park will keep safe 25 rare, vulnerable or threatened plants and 15 threatened animals. This includes Spot-tail Quolls, Growling Grass Frogs, Powerful Owls, Brush-tailed Phascogales, Greater Gliders and Mountain Skinks.

• Koalas live in the future Wombat-Lerderderg National Park. They sleep for 20 hours a day and usually are active at night. They’re mostly solitary, but females can often be seen carrying a joey, who remain with their mother until they’re 12 months old. They mostly eat eucalypt leaves but occasionally munch on leaves of other trees and shrubs. 

• Mountain Brushtail Possums live in the future Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, and they’re different to Common Brushtail Possums! They’re larger, with a bushier tail, blunter nose and shorter ears. They eat leaves, buds, fruit, fungi and lichen. Generally, they’re active at night and sleep in tree hollows during the day. 

• Citizen science wildlife surveys (run by VNPA’s NatureWatch) have recorded large numbers of Agile Antichinus, Eastern Ringtail Possums, Echidnas and Swamp Wallabies. All of these amazing animals would be safe from harm in the future Wombat-Lerderderg National Park.

Info: why we need additions to the Bendigo Regional Park

Note: Bendigo Regional Park is on the Traditional Lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung.

• In 2019, the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council recommended additions to the Greater Bendigo National Park and Bendigo Regional Park. The government did not accept recommendation for the Wellsford Forest to be added to the Greater Bendigo National Park – instead areas will be added to the more recreationally focused Bendigo Regional Park.

• Wellsford Forest is home to 32 rare or threatened plants and animals, including hollow-dependent and threatened Brush-tailed Phascogales and Barking Owls that have lived here for millennia. These incredible animals deserve the highest of protection. We’re keen to see these habitats added to the Bendigo Regional Park.

• Wellsford Forest is a bird sanctuary with over 165 different types of birds. More than half of the 24 species that make up the threatened Victorian temperate woodland bird community have been recorded here. New additions to Bendigo Regional Park will protect one of the largest and best condition Box-Ironbark forests in Victoria – right on Bendigo's doorstep.

• Wellsford forest is important habitat for threatened wildlife like Brush-tailed Phascogales, Diamond Firetails, Grey-crowned Babblers, Speckled Warblers, and the nationally endangered Swift Parrot. They should be protected in the Greater

• Dominated by eucalypts, wattles and wildflowers, Wellsford Forest is an ideal place to explore and enjoy Victoria’s Box-ironbark Forests as they recover from a long history of logging. The forest should be protected in the Greater Bendigo National Park (recommended by experts at the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council), but these habitats must be added to the Bendigo Regional Park.