The following article is taken from the Banksia Bulletin spring 2025 edition.
Words by Sue Forster Convenor, Friends of Bay Road Heathland Sanctuary.
Val Tyers has had an intimate connection with Cheltenham Park Flora and Fauna Reserve for more than 30 years. She joined the Friends of Cheltenham Park in 1993, just two years after it was formed, and in 1999 became its president/ convenor - roles she has diligently performed ever since.
I asked Val about the history of this group and what kept her motivated as an environmental leader. Val told me she first discovered the Friends when The Moorabbin Standard published an illustrated article asking for volunteers to help with park revegetation. Around 10 ancient pine trees had been cut down at the eastern end and the Friends of Cheltenham Park had undertaken to revegetate the area known as the Flora and Fauna Reserve. At that time the municipal nursery was only growing street trees, so had mixed success with an oversupply of around 800 Olearia propagated from seeds for the reserve. Other necessary plants were sourced from the Sandringham Community Nursery (now Bayside).
Cheltenham Park is one of the oldest municipal parks in the region. Established on Crown Land in 1883, it was reserved as a permanent public park in 1912 and planted as a Botanic Garden. The diversity of its vegetation reflects colonial tastes and the mid-twentieth century fashion for native arboretums featuring plants from interstate. The Friends group was formed when residents became interested in protecting and extending remnant indigenous plant sites within the park and were offered support by the council. According to Val, Andrew Mason (founding president) and Margaret Bond were among the main drivers of the group, while Jackie and Stephen Cornish, who preceded Val, are still active Friends today. Back then, Cheltenham Park was in the City of Moorabbin and had a full time park curator, Norm Corn.
Val's family joined the planting day and enjoyed it so much that they all went on to attend monthly working bees organised by the Friends. At that time, these were family events and there were jobs for everyone. Val remembers a lot of kids coming and going and building high towers out of empty plant tubes. While she enjoyed weeding (much more than in her own garden), her young son preferred planting and watering, and her husband laying water pipes and cutting down tea-trees. Her daughter, born later in 1995, continued to attend working bees until she was 15 years old.
This strong community focus was an important part of the Friends group's mission. It was one reason why members had real advisory power within Council and were successful from the outset in obtaining grants from agencies such as Greening Australia (through the National Trust) and Melbourne Parks and Waterways. The grants were often annual or biannual and funded professional botanical expertise to identify remnant plant species (initially around 40), create the first management plan and advise volunteers on what, where and how to plant. They also funded tools and equipment, plants, administrative costs, and signage and pamphlets for an indigenous plant trail.
As Val's involvement with the Friends group increased, she took on a bigger organisational and administrative load, making grant applications, organising financial and other reports, and running its committee. Val remembers a vibe that was informative, productive and optimistic, attracting at least 30 regular members at the group's peak. The Friends were also good at combining resources with other community groups for mutual benefit.
Val represented Cheltenham Park Friends at the Bayside Volunteer Network - Environment & Conservation, formed in 1999 to facilitate sharing information, training and support groups through the Bushland Crew. This became the Friends of Bayside Environmental Network, another useful layer of support. Between 1995-1999, Val was involved with Clean Up Australia Day and often spoke about both organisations to the Scouts and Guides whose base adjoined the park. Cheltenham Park provided an ideal opportunity for these young people to gain skills badges through community or environmental volunteering. Links were also made with Conservation and Land Management students doing projects in resource management, and Friends of Native Wildlife carried out bird and microbat surveys in the park.
Val's role in running the Friends group was initially sustained by her professional interest as a former geography teacher. Having studied first-year Botany and majoring in Physical Geography, she enjoyed applying her knowledge of geomorphology and meteorology to their activities. In 1994, she undertook a Horticulture course at Holmesglen, gaining some knowledge of indigenous plants and propagation that could be applied to the park. Val then went on to teach Horticulture at Victoria University TAFE, Hoppers Crossing, where she ran units on weed control and propagation and provided local plant identification.
As a child, Val lived locally in Mentone and Cheltenham, always with large gardens and access to bushland and wildflowers, but by the 1990s Cheltenham Park was the only park in the City of Moorabbin with any remnant bushland. When local governments amalgamated in December 1994, Cheltenham Park became part of the new City of Bayside, which contained other bushland reserves from the former City of Sandringham, collective experience of preserving them, and an established indigenous plant nursery.
As with other bushland Friends groups in Bayside, working bees in Cheltenham Park are now supported by Council's maintenance contractors, Citywide. Val says their work has been invaluable, and the team members have been very friendly, knowledgeable, reliable and helpful towards achieving the Friends' ongoing goals.
As more remnant vegetation has been identified, preserved and intensified through planting, the area worked by the Friends group has been greatly expanded and fenced. Indigenous grasses such as soft spear-grass (Austrostipa mollis) and weeping grass (Microlaena stipoides) now thrive, and orchid sites are closely monitored. Burns, both accidental and those ecologically managed by Citywide, have controlled overabundant weedy coast tea-tree (Gaudium laevigatum) and improved locally indigenous plant diversity.
The last controlled burn was in April 2024. Due to the site's fragility, volunteers are only now being allowed into it, but Val says she continues to be fascinated by the changes they bring. The Friends have always aimed to improve wildlife habitat, and one of their early grants was for plantings to complement the banksia stands where common bronzewings were found. Cheltenham Park is one of the few areas in Bayside where they are still located today. Larger lizards, such as blue-tongued skinks, are also regularly reported, despite having disappeared from many other Bayside bushland reserves.
Over 32 years, Val Tyers has quietly donated thousands of volunteer hours to improving indigenous habitat in Cheltenham Park, educating herself and others in the process. Unsurprisingly, Bayside Community Nursery also recognised the value of Val's plant knowledge; in 2016 she was asked to become a retail volunteer and is still working there today.
