The 20 Million Trees Project in Dakalanta Wildlife Sanctuary

Dakalanta Wildlife Sanctuary covers 13,600 hectares and occupies a strategically important location on Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. In partnership with Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Landcare Australia is revegetating this property in order to restore severely degraded Drooping Sheoak Grassy Woodlands. This project will provide habitat for rare woodland birds and a large resident population of regionally threatened southern hairy-nosed wombats.

Based on Landcare Australia’s monitoring program, the site currently holds 3 Million trees, shrubs, and groundcovers and has significantly exceeded the initial project target of planting 595,000 trees and shrubs. Using over 50 locally sourced indigenous species, the direct seeding component of this project has seen over 2,380 Kilometers of seeding completed on site.

Landcare Australia worked closely with a variety of community groups to deliver this project including the Ceduna Aboriginal Corporation who was engaged to collect and process local seeds. The local school and community also got involved in tube stock planting days, where 3,000 Sheoak tube stocks were planted.

Drooping Sheoak Grassy Woodlands have been declining in South Australia for several decades and are listed as rare in South Australia. This project is helping to reverse that trend while also providing an important habitat for many other endangered Aussie species.

The planning, logistics, and materials required for delivering a project of this scale were extensive, with Landcare Australia collecting 1,190 kilograms of seed and constructing a custom-built direct seeding machine for the calcareous soils found on the project site. In addition, Landcare Australia also deployed an integrated pest management strategy which adopted a regional approach to addressing the various invasive species that were deemed a threat to the project’s success.

Landcare Australia worked closely with local farmers, community groups, State Government agencies, and Aboriginal corporations to successfully deliver this large-scale restoration project.