Rare and endangered plant and wildlife is being saved from extinction in parklands across Melbourne. The Melbourne City Council and the Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria have started working together to create what it is calling 'the threatened species living collection' plan. The council says it jumped at the idea - after the success of another project involving grasshoppers.
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00:00 This job sucks.
00:04 But it is effective.
00:07 Armed with a tube, hose, filter and a good set of lungs, these guys are hunting the tiny
00:12 matchstick grasshopper.
00:14 Only found in Australia and once extinct in Melbourne, it's flourishing in Royal Park.
00:19 Of the ten sites that we did last year, seven of them are successful.
00:24 And this small reintroduction means a lot.
00:26 First to the resilience of the city's wildlife and biodiversity.
00:29 You get this particular matchstick around in the winter, so putting them back into Royal
00:34 Park actually really helps the food chain.
00:36 Second, because the council is inspired to do even more.
00:39 In city environments, we can play a role in regenerating species that have become extinct
00:46 because of bushfires in country areas, for example.
00:50 The pine mountain grevelia only grows naturally in north-east Victoria and was nearly wiped
00:54 out by bushfires in 2019.
00:56 This sapling is the first to be planted in what the council and Royal Botanic Gardens
01:00 Victoria is calling its 'threatened species living collection'.
01:04 We call it the backstop to extinction.
01:06 It will relocate endangered flora to city parks to be nurtured as part of an active
01:09 ecosystem.
01:10 From little things, big things grow.
01:13 Australia has about 1500 threatened plant species and while seed banks exist, not all
01:18 species are safe.
01:19 50% of the threatened flora across the state is banked, which is phenomenal.
01:24 However, there's a whole bunch of species, we call them recalcitrant species, that can't
01:28 be stored.
01:29 Now that this fragile little grevelia is on some solid ground, another 40 species have
01:34 been identified to be planted as part of this project.
01:37 The grasshoppers benefit too.
01:39 As you put more and more plants in, including the grevelia, they will feed on those too.
01:44 Sites at Royal Park, Fitzroy Gardens and Domain are being surveyed for threatened plant life.
01:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]