Community stories: 20 November 2024
Home to a remote island community at the western end of Bass Strait, King Island is about 140 kilometres from both Victoria and Tasmania. Isolated for around 10,000 years, the island is home to unique native plants and animals. The community of about 1,600 people is deeply interested in protecting their natural environment, which is important for their livelihood and wellbeing.
Known for producing ‘clean and green’ products of beef, cheese, crayfish, kelp, beer, gin and whisky, the island also attracts tourists with its stunning natural beauty. However, more than two thirds of its native vegetation has been lost, putting unique flora and fauna at risk. Fortunately, the island’s future is in good hands, as protection of this natural habitat is a top priority for locals, with volunteers undertaking enormous amounts of work to sustain both community and environment.
A key tenet of ANZ’s Seed of Renewal grant program is to support environmental sustainability by helping local groups protect and restore the environment. King Island Landcare Group’s project to create a restoration kit and train community members to use it to restore and monitor native vegetation fit well with this goal.
The $14,766 grant awarded in 2022 enabled the community to engage a consultant ecologist to create the kit and visit the island to train members how to use it to renew, repair and extend native vegetation, as well as providing methodology on monitoring restoration impacts over time. This was a significant achievement, as the island’s remoteness makes hiring consultant ecologists expensive and requires careful coordination. However, the tenacity of the community and their desire for this activity led them to ensure the schedule fit seasonal conditions, in addition to using video conferencing for some of the training.
The importance of planning, monitoring and recording projects over time was a key learning. Their new skills will help protect native flora and fauna, especially threatened Kind Island birds. In acquitting their grant, the King Island Landcare Group wrote, “This was a fantastic project for the local community, one that will benefit the island and its inhabitants for many years. The community’s ability to carry out restoration activities has grown, and we are thankful to ANZ and FRRR for their support.”
