MILLIE: Today I'm visiting a couple of properties in Central Victoria.
It is a beautiful stretch of country
and one that is really close to my heart.
(BIRDSONG)
There is so much to look at here. I love these matted bush-peas.
They are so pretty.
They form a very colourful carpet, don't they?
I'm exploring with conservation ecologist Dr Sophie Bickford
to learn about the work being done to protect areas like this.
We've got stylidiums here.
We've got chocolate lilies.
There are gorgeous little dianellas,
grasses, orchids.
It's... It really is a wonderland.
The area is filled with spectacular little islands
of remnant vegetation like this one.
They are so rich with species.
But they're in a sea of landscape that is so incredibly changed.
And without being reconnected to other ecosystems,
this biodiversity can't last.
It's a bit like an animal in the zoo, really.
It's pretty to look at but it's not very functional.
It's not really going to be able to survive,
you know, well into the future.
And so if we think about a landscape like this,
which supports sugar gliders, threatened brush-tailed phascogales,
they need to be able to move to other patches like this,
other patches of habitat that sustain them,
to search for food, to search for mates,
to escape disturbances such as wildfire.
So a connected landscape's really important
for the persistence of species.
And we've gotta remember
our landscapes were once always connected.
We've fragmented them with agriculture
and roads and urbanisation.
So Biolinks is about re-establishing
some of these ecological connections that were once there
and were once so important for the persistence of species.
Dr Bickford works with the Biolinks Alliance.
The property we're on now
is one of several in a 14km corridor
that they've identified as
having high conservation potential.
Biolinks then works
with private landowners
to reconnect their property
back into the broader landscape.
These private lands contain species
that aren't represented in national parks.
They really only occur
on these productive, temperate, grassy woodland ecosystems
which are all, by and large, in private ownership.
So it presents a really new approach to doing conservation.
It's about bringing landholders along with you
and giving them the information, the inspiration,
the confidence to play their part,
because that's what it's gonna take
to stitch this landscape back together -
everyone participating, playing a role.
This approach appeals to Graham,
whose farm is just across the road.
If we can link up all of these little remnant bits of vegetation
and grow these corridors up and more people come on board,
with the help of experts, we'll get there,
but it's all about education.
Graham has now joined the Biolinks Alliance,
but he's long been aware of the potential of this property.
Well, it had very good remnant yellow box vegetation, grasslands.
And I could just see,
using a reference area across the road,
as what you could possibly end up with
if you did protect it,
so we figured if we fenced off
a decent piece of land off the road there
we'd get migration of the seed and propagation material from the road,
'cause that is a very valuable piece of vegetation along there.
The narrow strips of land between our roads and farms
are often corridors containing remnant vegetation,
so they're a great place to start.
Graham put in fencing to widen the area,
keeping the cattle out,
so it could regenerate naturally.
And that was basically five to six years ago
we put that fence line in
and you can see the stark difference
between that side of the fence and that side of the fence.
So, what you've done is, basically,
take that little fragment and let that spread here,
but the cows are still allowed in here.
That's right.
So, a working farm's still gotta be a working farm.
So, take out the country that's reasonable valuable for cattle,
and what's not that valuable from a production point of view,
it's massively productive from a wildlife point of view.
So, by using the existing seed bed, basically,
it's just migrating across the protected area on its own,
without replanting or anything.
I haven't planted a tree down here yet.
So you're taking a tiny remnant fragment
and turning it into a big highway.
That's right, yeah. That's the aim of the exercise, yeah.
All types of ecosystems need to be connected,
including wetland habitats
which act as stepping stones through the landscape.
And Graham is lucky enough to have one.
We've got one of the most beautiful spring soaks I've seen here.
They're fed by groundwater coming up in a spring.
It's a unique ecosystem full of sedges and reeds,
and they support a whole lot of unique species
that don't occur anywhere else.
And the species here need other spring soaks nearby
to function and to swap genes with, to move between.
So, we need a series of spring soaks across the whole landscape
to ensure that this spring soak lives on into the future.
Did you always know this was a special spot?
Yeah, I did.
It was always a really nice spot.
There was always frogs in there, always.
Every night you could hear them, basically.
From a farmer's point of view, a management point of view,
it was just so wet for vehicles and stock,
it wasn't... it's just not worth doing.
So, simple fence around it. It's protected.
And the value's gone up dramatically, ecologically.
And Graham's place has lots of high-rise habitat too.
That is an absolute beauty.
This is a grandaddy, this tree.
It's a large old tree.
I like to think of them
as the superheroes of the landscape.
They do a lot of the heavy lifting.
They have incredible habitat value
for many, many species.
They also enable animals to move safely through the landscape,
between patches of habitat.
So, we really need to look after our elders first and foremost,
and you can do that in many ways -
perhaps taking off a bit of the grazing pressure,
if they're in a grazing paddock,
a bit of arboriculture
if the tree's looking like it needs some help and it's a bit lopsided.
So when you're linking that biodiversity,
is it about planting trees?
A biolink isn't necessarily a continuous corridor of forest.
It can be a series of scattered, large, old trees
in a landscape that allow species
to safely hop about and move through.
And what we need to do
when we're thinking about how we reconnect landscapes
is think about that variety that's naturally in the landscape
and think about conserving all those components
in a mosaic.
Within that mosaic,
the farmland sits within that as well.
Yes, it can, quite happily.
If we understand how species move
and we design our linkages to facilitate that movement,
it's quite compatible with our grazing systems or...
Even our towns. Even our towns.
That's right. Absolutely.
We're very lucky in Australia
that we still have much of our biodiversity.
It's been lost elsewhere in the world.
Central Victoria has more than 2,000 native species.
Now, this is more species
than in the entire landmass of Europe, Great Britain included,
so it's huge.
But they are in trouble.
They're hanging on in these small patches
and they do need help.
The patches need extending and they need connecting.
If we decide we want to leave some more space for nature,
nature is still just hanging in there and it will come back,
and surprisingly easily if we let it.
Find out if there are Biolinks projects in your area.
Your place might just be the missing piece of the puzzle.