Protecting our national and world heritage icons and key threatened species is the major focus of hundreds of new Green Army projects to be rolled out across the country in coming months.
I am delighted today to announce 397 new Green Army projects under Round Four of the programme.
This brings the total number of approved Green Army projects to 1,145 since the programme began in 2014.
Many of the new Green Army teams will work to support the delivery of targets set out in Australia’s Threatened Species Strategy.
Participants will carry out recovery actions for priority threatened birds and mammals or take action to reduce the impact of feral cats.
Overall, 311 of the new projects will support threatened species recovery, including 119 projects that will address priority threatened species under the Threatened Species Strategy.
Feral cat eradication will be a special focus of 93 of the projects.
Working on national and world heritage sites will be the focus for 106 new Green Army projects, including 32 that will directly benefit the Great Barrier Reef.
In Sydney, a Green Army team will work with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust at North Head and Cockatoo Island, restoring 1.8 kilometres of 1930s stone wall and pre-WWII military tunnels.
In Melbourne, gardens at Rippon Lea Estate will be restored to their former glory with plantings of the period.
Other heritage icons that will benefit from a Green Army team include Victoria’s Great Ocean Road and Castlemaine Diggings, Parramatta Park in Sydney, Wodonga’s Bonegilla Migrant Camp and the Woolmers and Brickendon estates in Tasmania.
A total of 145 of the projects will be undertaken in remote Australia, many hosted by Indigenous groups.
In the Kimberley, Green Army participants the Nyul Nyul Women’s Rangers will expand an existing nursery in Beagle Bay to propagate native bush foods and bush medicine and revegetate National Heritage listed Monsoonal Vine Thicket sites on the Dampier Peninsula.
In Queensland, Green Army teams will work with the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation on a range of projects, including feral pig eradication on Hinchinbrook Island and water quality sampling and weed eradication in the upper Burdekin catchment.
The Green Army programme not only benefits the environment, but also provides participants with skills and experience they can use elsewhere the workforce.
The Green Army participants I’ve met around the country are impressive young Australians who are proud of the positive work they’re doing for the environment and their communities.
I look forward to meeting the next round of Green Army participants as these new projects are rolled out across the country.
A full list of approved Round Four projects is available at: www.australia.gov.au/greenarmy
(ENDS)