The grassy plains that once covered a third of Victoria were home to Bettongs, Eastern Quolls and Pig-footed Bandicoots.
They shared these native prairies with White-footed Rabbit-rats, Victorian Grassland Earless Dragons and Eastern Barred Bandicoots.
Now less than two percent left of our wildflower meadows remain. It only took 200 years to almost destroy what was cared for by traditional custodians for over millennia.
Birds such as the Australian Bustard, the Magpie Goose and Brolgas are rarely seen. The Plains Wanderer is critically endangered. The Bush Stone-curlew is in many regions locally extinct.
But still the erasure and destruction of grassland habitat continue. Last year, yesterday, today.
Another ancient grassland gone forever
Recently 40 hectares of endangered old-growth grassland in Truganina in Melbourne’s west was smothered in tonnes of potentially contaminated fill. The privately-owned land, known as Conservation Area 9, was earmarked for conservation in 2013. But it was never properly safeguarded.
Despite promises and plans from both state and federal governments, these habitats and wildlife still don’t have the protection they deserve.
Pressure to develop property for profit means for too long your elected representatives have put the grasslands last, not first.
So, in the dump of a trunk another ancient grassland is now gone forever.
What can be done?
- The new Federal Labor Government must urgently review the failing Melbourne Strategic Assessment – the deal they made that was supposed to protect our grasslands.
- The State Labor Government needs to step-up and protect our other important urban grasslands: Solomon Heights, Ajax Road and Burns Road Grasslands and the Broadcast Australia site in Sydenham among others.
You can include your own subject line and message for more impact.