PARK WATCH Article September 2026 |

The pieces of the jigsaw are starting to fall into place for this iconic landscape, report Jordan Crook, Parks & Nature Campaigner, and Catherine Watson, Save Western Port Woodlands 

The Western Port Woodlands is a forest corridor of five conservation reserves and remnant woodlands on public and private land. It’s spread roughly parallel to Western Port Bay across three shires – Cardinia, South Gippsland and Bass Coast – in Bunurong Country.

Protecting the Woodlands is no easy task, but after more than six years of pushing for protection, pieces of the jigsaw are at last falling into place.

An informal woodlands alliance has been created with VNPA, Save Western Port Woodlands (SWPW), Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group, South Gippsland Conservation Society and Phillip Island Conservation Society.

Our long-term ambition is an Environmental Significance Overlay (ESO), which would give protection to the woodlands through the planning scheme and only allow land uses that are compatible with protection. We’re working closely with Bass Coast Shire Council to achieve it.

In October 2025, the Bass Coast Statement of Planning Policy recognised the Western Port Woodlands as ‘an area of outstanding environmental significance’ and a ‘distinctive attribute’ of Bass Coast that must be protected.

It also recognised community concerns about sand quarrying, but left the conflict unresolved, calling for further work to map the woodlands and assess the effectiveness of existing planning and quarrying protections.

That work has started, thanks to the commitment of the council to protect these woodlands. Multiple surveys are underway on public and private land.

Council and the woodlands alliance have asked Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny to impose an interim ESO until May 2028, preventing further destruction or fragmentation while the work is completed. We await her response.

Filling the gaps

Another priority is connecting the woodlands in major reserves and public land.

Bass Coast’s Nature Recovery Foundation, launched in June, provides a potential vehicle to do so. It’s a partnership between Bass Coast Shire Council and Biodiversity Legacy, aiming to bring 30 per cent of land across the shire into active care for nature through philanthropy, corporate partnerships and community donations. Landowners can also donate significant sites.

The Western Port Woodlands is a major focus, with the aim of securing strategic sites and rebuilding habitat links between the five major reserves.

A shift on sand

In April, the State Government gazetted new Strategic Extractive Resources Areas (SERAs), identifying major sand deposits on cleared farmland in Cardinia and Baw Baw shires and reducing the pressure to quarry surviving bush in the Western Port Woodlands.

In July, then Resources Minister Lily D’Ambrosio visited the woodlands to announce the removal of the Extractive Industry Interest Area (EIIA) overlay from several Bass Coast sites, including the former Holden Proving Ground (home to incredible remnant woodland).

This is a significant step. But the overlay remains over most of the Woodlands outside the reserves. The alliance and Bass Coast Shire Council continue to press for its removal or refinement as the industry shifts towards cleared farmland near Lang Lang and Nyora.

A welcome commitment

In mid-2024, the alliance asked Holcim Australia to give up its legal right to quarry 67 hectares of woodland surrounded by Adams Creek Nature Conservation Reserve.

The area is home to threatened wildlife including Southern Brown Bandicoots, Powerful Owls and Lace Monitors. Quarrying would severely compromised habitat and connectivity.

Two years later, Holcim CEO George Agriogiannis wrote to us, formally committing the company would not seek to quarry in the western section.

‘We recognise the significant ecological value of the Adams Creek Nature Reserve and the broader Western Port Woodlands corridor,’ he wrote.

This is impressive leadership from Holcim and a big win for the community and the woodlands.

The proving ground

At almost 900 hectares, the former Holden Proving Ground is the central chunk of the Western Port Woodlands. VNPA and SWPW spent several years urging the State Government to purchase and protect it. But they did not.

In May, the site was sold to DefendTex, a Melbourne defence technology company. We were nervous about what that would mean for those woodlands.

DefendTex’s founder and CEO Travis Reddy has since calmed our nerves.

‘The site has been well managed over the years, and DefendTex intends to continue the legacy of environmental stewardship of the site,’ he told Yahoo News in August.

‘There will certainly be no quarrying or land clearing activities on the site.’

It’s great to see nature conservation leadership from the private sector. It would be great to see more from the State Government.