Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub (ESBS) is being brought back from the brink in a $6 million project to boost one of Australia's most endangered ecological communities while creating jobs, skills and cultural learning opportunities for young Aboriginal people.
The five-year ACHIEVE project will be led by lndigiGrow, an Aboriginal-owned and staffed not-for-profit native plant nursery and social enterprise based in La Perouse.
The initiative will help protect and restore the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, which has been reduced to just three per cent of its original extent.
Once covering around 5,300 hectares, ESBS has shrunk due to decades of urban development, invasive species and lack of traditional land management practices, leaving only around 146 hectares remaining.
ACHIEVE will establish a network of new living seedbanks, support culturally informed propagation of native plants, and train a specialised conservation and ecosystem management workforce on Country.
ACHIEVE combines nature restoration with Aboriginal-led Caring for Country, helping preserve and pass on cultural knowledge to younger generations while supporting the long-term health of Sydney's coastal landscapes.
The initiative will deliver environmental, social and cultural benefits by helping restore Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, creating jobs and training opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and building a skilled workforce to care for this unique ecological community long into the future.
This is one of five major environmental initiatives being delivered under the NSW Environmental Trust's 2024 to 2029 Strategic Plan and reflects a new approach to funding strategic, long-term initiatives addressing significant environmental challenges.
The NSW Environmental Trust is investing $39.1 million in the five projects, and when combined with partners' support, there will be more than $62 million in environmental, cultural and community benefits across NSW.
NSW Environmental Trust Director Katie Robinson said:
"Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub is a unique part of Sydney's natural heritage, but only a small fraction of it remains.
"This project will help restore this critically endangered ecological community while creating training, employment and cultural opportunities led by Aboriginal communities.
"Protecting our environment takes practical action, strong partnerships and smart investment, and that's exactly what each of the five major projects funded by the NSW Environmental Trust do."
lndigiGrow CEO Peter Cooley said:
"This funding gives us the opportunity to scale up our work in Caring for Country by increasing and protecting Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub for future generations.
"We will achieve social, cultural, environmental, and economic outcomes through Aboriginal employment and training, growing and supplying a broader range of local endemic native plants, and help restore habitat for local wildlife.
"The ACHIEVE project will also produce more local native seed through Living Seedbank patches for immediate use allowing us to significantly scale up production. Importantly, the ACHIEVE project will be self-sustaining after the life of the grant.
"In the years ahead, we hope communities across Sydney will see healthier landscapes, greater biodiversity and a stronger connection to the unique plants that belong here."
Background
- Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub is listed as a critically endangered ecological community.
- It once covered approximately 5,300 hectares of Sydney's coastal areas but only around 146 hectares remain.
- Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub (ESBS) is an ecological community comprising around 200 plant species. Dominant plants include banksias, shrubs, heath species, sedges, grasses, and wattles. While primarily a heathland or shrubland, it can occasionally include low emergent eucalypts and bloodwoods.
- If you walk along the clifftops from Manly to Royal National Park, you'll walk through coastal heathland that has grown there for millennia. It may look like it's all the same type of scrub, but it's not. Nestled among this coastal vegetation is a unique type of heath called Eastern Suburbs banksia scrub.
- Eastern Suburbs banksia scrub, or ESBS as it's known in Western science, has Aboriginal cultural significance and is home to many animals. In 1788, when Europeans first reached the lands of the Bidjigal and Dharawal peoples, ESBS occurred throughout what is now known as eastern Sydney, North Head and parts of Royal National Park.
- The ACHIEVE project will establish ESBS living seedbanks, support culturally informed propagation, and deliver conservation training and qualifications on Country.
- The project aims to build a long-term community of practice with the skills and knowledge to protect, restore and expand Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub beyond the life of the grant.
- lndigiGrow is an Aboriginal-owned, run and staffed not-for-profit native plant nursery based in La Perouse, Sydney.
The Environmental Trust had 4 other successful major grant recipients.
They are:
- Barkandji Native Title Prescribed Body Corporate and the Water, Wetlands and Coastal Science branch of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) - Darling Baaka River Health project ($4 million): Improving river health decision-making by combining cultural indicators, joint monitoring and predictive modelling for the Darling Baaka River.
- Natural Resources Commission - Whole-of-Country Management for Healthy Country project ($11.8 million): A seven-year initiative supporting seven NSW Aboriginal communities to lead cross-tenure natural resource management and care for Country.
- Royal Botanic Gardens Domain Trust and Bundjalung Tribal Society - Seed and Culture Conservation project ($4.8 million): Establishing an Indigenous-led seed conservation system on Bundjalung Country to strengthen cultural knowledge, support ecological restoration and build climate resilience.
- Western Sydney University - Climate Adaptation Trials ($12.5 million): Establishing large-scale trials across NSW to identify species, seed sources and genetic traits best suited to future climate conditions.
