Our team helped to plant almost 2,500 local native plants to help transform former farmland in rural NSW into wildlife habitat.
Thirty-five North Sydney volunteers travelled to Boorowa over the weekend for the 26th Building Bridges to Boorowa tree planting trip.
Together with Boorowa Community Landcare Group and Hilltops Council, the group planted nearly 2,500 native trees across four sites – restoring creek banks, creating wildlife corridors, and improving soil and water retention. The project has now seen almost 75,000 trees planted since its inception.
The group was lucky enough to be joined by a surprise guest, environmental advocate Costa Georgiadis. His boundless energy and heartfelt storytelling inspired volunteers and brought a celebratory spirit to the planting efforts.
Each of the four planting sites offered a different ecological challenge and opportunity:
- Friday afternoon saw 500 trees planted along a creek line to stabilise eroded banks and restore the vegetation along the waterway.
- Saturday morning featured a high-efficiency planting of 1,400 trees in corridor-style rows along a paddock fence, designed to provide windbreaks for livestock and connect existing habitat.
- Saturday afternoon involved 500 more trees planted along a road corridor, with contour-aligned rip lines to help water infiltrate and reduce erosion.
- Sunday morning wrapped up with infill planting of 60 trees in an existing corridor, while others visited a 2017 planting site and the ecologically significant Grassy Box Woodland site at Red Hill Reserve.
The trip finished with a community dinner featuring reflections from local leaders and members of the original Bushland team who launched the first planting trip in 2000.
A huge thank you to everyone who has helped grow this enduring urban-rural partnership and greener future.