Grassroots Grants: more than $3m flows to community projects this year

News article |

South Australia’s Grassroots Grants program is run by the state’s 9 landscape boards to empower the community to take action for the environment.

Here’s what we can look forward to, with links to every project green-lit in the 2024 funding round.

We also highlight some fantastic achievements from completed Grassroots Grant projects.

Successful Grassroots Grants projects across the regions in 2024

Eyre Peninsula: Close to $130,000 has been awarded to 13 diverse projects that involve the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board’s priority areas of water, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, pest plants & animals and the community. Read the news story or see the full list of projects funded.

Green Adelaide: Forty-six community projects have received a share of $1.2 million in funding thanks to Green Adelaide’s Grassroots Grants program, which aims to create a cooler, greener and wilder city. Read the news story or see the full list of successful grant projects.

Hills and Fleurieu: 28 community-led projects across the Hills and Fleurieu region benefitted in a share of $269,000 through the board’s 2024-25 Grassroots Grants program. Read the news story or see the full list of recipients.

Kangaroo Island: In 2024 ten community groups and landholders shared in $53,000 of Grassroots Grants funded projects on Kangaroo Island.  Read the full list of successful projects.

Limestone Coast: The Limestone Coast Landscape Board committed just over $300,000 to their 2024-25 Grassroots Grants program. For all things Grassroots Grants in the Limestone Coast region visit their Grassroots Grants project page.

Murraylands and Riverland: 35 applicants were successful in securing Grassroots Grants for 45 projects, sharing in a total funding pool of more than $723,000.  Explore the Murrylands and Riverland Landscape Board's 2024 Grassroots Grants funded projects through an interactive map.

Northern and Yorke: 25 projects received a total of $214,463 in funding. Read the news story or see the full list of projects funded in 2024.

South Australian Arid Lands: In 2024-25 almost $150,000 was made available for Grassroots Grants to address environmental projects in the SA Arid Lands. Read the full list of recipients.

Great outcomes from Grassroots Grants projects

Swampy classroom connects kids with nature

Grassroots Grants: more than $3m flows to community projects this year

There’s something unique about Mount Compass Area School. It has a swamp on its grounds where students engage in hands-on learning as swamp stewards.

Through the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board’s Grassroots Grants program, the school expanded its swamp revegetation efforts and bought water testing kits to help the school community care for the swamp into the future.

The swamp is part of the Fleurieu Swamps network, a critically endangered ecological community home to many nationally threatened species.

17 hectares of swamp, forest and farmland provides a diverse and unique classroom to connect kids with nature.

Giant fight for tiny species in state’s Mid North

Grassroots Grants: more than $3m flows to community projects this year
Pygmy bluetongue. Image: Lucy Clive

An endangered species of lizard found exclusively in South Australia’s Mid North is facing a giant battle for survival, with one expert saying it could be extinct within this century.

Conservationists, community and landholders are stepping up their efforts to keep the special little species - the pygmy bluetongue - around for the future.

With help from a Northern and Yorke Landscape Board Grassroots Grant, Nature Foundation and the pygmy bluetongue recovery team have been able to lead a ‘Lizard Crawl’ event to survey lizard numbers, with help from Nature Foundation members and volunteers.

Learn more about the tiny pygmy bluetongue lizard’s fight for survival.

Parnkalla Walking Trail a haven for native species

Grassroots Grants: more than $3m flows to community projects this year
The Parnkalla trail revegetation works has seen weeds replaced with native species.

It’s been inspiring to see the Friends of Parnkalla Walking Trail group undertake many volunteer hours of weed control and revegetation around the popular Port Lincoln area, supported by a local Grassroots Grant.

The Parnkalla trail is home to a number of native flora and fauna species, some of which are threatened. To help raise awareness of this, the group has also installed educational signage along the trail as part of their grant project.

Close eye kept on superb groundsel daisy

Grassroots Grants: more than $3m flows to community projects this year

Surveys to monitor the nationally vulnerable superb groundsel daisy (Senecio megaglossus) have been undertaken in the Dutchman’s Stern Conservation Park and surrounding private land near Quorn.

Four university students joined seven volunteer botanists in a project organised by the Threatened Plant Action Group and funded by an SA Arid Lands Landscape Board Grassroots Grant.

Collectively they spent 200 hours walking and traversing slippery slopes to find, count and monitor the daisy, revisiting historical records and searching for new populations.

Cooler, greener, wilder Adelaide

Grassroots Grants: more than $3m flows to community projects this year
Volunteers helping at the Adelaide Sailing Club Planting Day in June 2023. Image: Adelaide Sailing Club

Green Adelaide is working towards a cooler, greener, wilder and more climate-resilient metropolitan South Australia that celebrates our unique culture.

Just a few examples of Green Adelaide Grassroots Grants in action include setting up a new raingarden with nature education benefits, revitalising the West Beach coastline, and setting up the new Patawalonga Dolphin Trail.

Find out more about these 3 inspirational grant projects.

More information

Each region, including Green Adelaide, has a Grassroots Grants program, funded by levies collected within each region and from state funding for boards that have no or low levy revenue.

The grants support not-for-profit community-based organisations, volunteer groups and individuals to run local projects that help care for our soil, water and biodiversity.

Grants can be used to kick-start a new project or build on an existing one for activities such as weed treatment, pest management, fencing, erosion management, revegetation and community education activities.

Check your local landscape board website for details.

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