This is the only home of Victoria’s newly listed threatened species
From October to March you will find the forest floor of Mt. Cole lighting up with the blood red flowers of the Mt. Cole Grevillea (Grevillea montis-cole subsp. montis-cole) feeding local birds and native bees.
These stunning red beauties are one of a handful of critically endangered plants that call the forgotten forests home.
The Mt. Cole Grevillea is part of the southern holly leaved group of grevillea’s due to its pointed holly like leaves and is only found on the granitic loam soils on the slopes of Mt. Cole in Victoria’s Central west.
This unique plant and the ecology it lives in will be extinguished, not through a natural event but through known threats, with known remedies.
The Grevillea once covered much of the mountain but has seen a 75 per cent contraction in habitat due to impacts by logging and inappropriate use of fire, to name just a few.
This unique plant and the ecology it lives in will be extinguished, not through a natural event but through known threats, with known remedies.
The best way to protect the Mt. Cole Grevillea and a myriad of other species is to protect them in a new national park or national ark that will get these unique species into the future without the risk of extinction.
Expert recommendations to create new national parks:
The VEAC recommendations include almost 60,000 hectares of new national park and reserves for the Mount Cole and Pyrenees Ranges (near Beaufort and Avoca), and the Wombat (near Daylesford) and Wellsford (near Bendigo) Forests. In addition 19,000 hectares of regional park allow almost all forms of recreation.
Under legislation, the Victorian Government was required to formally respond to the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council Final Report, on the first sitting day six months after being tabled in Parliament. The VEAC report was tabled on 15 August 2019. Legally a response was required in the last sitting week of February 2020, and is now well overdue.
Image © David Tatnall