2024 Bupa Landcare Grants Program
11 September 2025: In 2024, Bupa and Landcare Australia partnered to create the Bupa Landcare Grants program, supporting 33 projects across the country in urban and peri-urban communities. The program helped transform local environments and create healthier, greener spaces for people to enjoy.
The program enhanced both environmental and health outcomes by planting locally endemic trees and shrubs, enhancing native vegetation connectivity, and creating new green spaces in urban areas. These efforts supported community wellbeing by offering local volunteers the opportunity to get active through landcare, which benefits both mental and physical health, and they create healthier, greener environments that encourage all community members to spend time outdoors and stay active.
Key achievements included:
- 100,735 native trees, shrubs and groundcovers planted
- 163,000 square metres of weed control undertaken
- 16,487 volunteer hours contributed
- 5,540 community members attended planting days
- 102 hectares of public green spaces and parks enhanced
Funded projects include:
- Albert Park, Victoria: Port Phillip EcoCentre Inc. transformed A 400m² patch of degraded kikuyu grass into a thriving biodiversity corridor through the planting of 2,900 indigenous plants. This revegetation effort supports native pollinators and bird species, contributing to ecological connectivity between the Ngargee Tree Indigenous Cultural Heritage site and the Canterbury Road Urban Forest. Over 300 individuals, including students, teachers, parents, local residents, and corporate volunteers participated in planting events and site care.
- Kiama, New South Wales: Landcare Illawarra successfully revegetated and expanded wildlife corridors while planting over 1,500 native trees, shrubs, groundcovers, vines, grasses, and ferns across five degraded public reserve sites located in high-traffic recreational areas. This contributes to expanded wildlife corridors for coastal fauna and will be maintained by active local Landcare groups. The new plantings will improve habitat quality, support ecological connectivity, and enhance biodiversity adjacent to listed Threatened Ecological Communities.
- Encounter Bay, South Australia: Biodiversity Victor Harbor Inc revegetated and improved habitat areas of the Bluff Reserve, a botanically, culturally, and geologically significant site on the urban fringe. Home to echidnas, kangaroos, Cunningham’s Skinks, more than 80 bird species, and 131 endemic plants, it faces erosion, habitat loss, and weeds. This revegetation project restores biodiversity, safeguards wildlife, and leaves a lasting legacy for future generations to enjoy.
- Redlynch, Queensland: Treeforce Association Inc regained connectivity for the Freshwater Creek Wildlife Corridor, creating flow between Mount Whitfield and the Wet Tropics Rainforest Bio-regions. They planted over 1700 native seedlings supporting the endangered Lowlands Rainforest. Treeforce hosted 5 well attended community events and engaged over 180 volunteers of all ages in the project.
- Claremont, Western Australia: Friends of Lake Claremont Limited revegetated a barren site where Moreton fig trees infected with Polyphagous Shot-Hole Borer had to be removed. This project establishes a native ecosystem of diverse overstorey trees and understory. Replanting of the wetland buffer area with trees, shrubs and groundcover will re-establish a native ecosystem. This will provide additional habitat for local wildlife, including birds, possums, quendas, reptiles, amphibians and insects.
Landcare Australia CEO Dr Shane Norrish said, “This funding has had a remarkable impact within just one year. It has been more than planting trees, this program has created opportunities for communities to come together through events that welcomed people of all ages and backgrounds. These projects have supported and built green spaces that will be enjoyed for generations to come. We are deeply grateful to everyone involved, from local volunteers to community members and landcarers, whose passion and dedication made this possible.”
Bupa APAC Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, Roger Sharp said “As we gear up for Healthy Cities 2025, it’s amazing to see the impact our 2024 program has had in creating green spaces to improve both the health of our cities and people living in those cities. We look forward to building upon these successes even further in the year to come through our partnership with Landcare Australia.”
Following the success of the 2024 program, the Bupa Landcare Grants reopened for 2025, giving more community groups the opportunity to secure funding to support community groups and organisations across Australia to plant native plants in urban and peri-urban communities.
Several additional projects received funding in April 2025 under the extended 2024 Bupa Landcare Grants Program. These projects are still in progress and will contribute even more impact once completed.
The Bupa Landcare Grants Program is an initiative of Bupa’s Healthy Cities program, which aims to deliver positive health outcomes for both people and the planet.
Read more about the 33 funded projects, as part of the 2024 Bupa Landcare Grant Program here.