Resilient coast: Revegetating Yorke Peninsula's coastline

The Northern and Yorke Landscape Board’s Djulda-wawa Badja project brought together Greening Australia (GA), Wardang Island Sea Country Indigenous Protected Area Rangers (IPA), Trees for Life and the local community in a bold effort to replant large areas of the coastal landscape on Yorke Peninsula.

Djulda-wawa Badja means ‘resilient coast’ in Narungga language and for the past three years, the project has been building the coastline’s resilience through practical, on-ground land management activities.

The project allowed for large-scale revegetation at areas including Gagadhi (north of Port Victoria), Wardang Island, Rifle Butts, Port Wakefield, Cape Elizabeth, South Coast Road, Klein Point, Point Souttar, Burners Beach and Parara.

Wardang Island Sea Country IPA consultation project coordinator Ian Baker has worked with IPA rangers and community members from Point Pearce, along with GA and the Landscape Board, to undertake the project.

He said there were some early signs their goals were being achieved.

“We’ve mainly targeted sand dunes to stop erosion in those areas,” Ian said.

“It is good seeing the animals back and you can take your kids out there and show them the trees we planted.

“They can see the kangaroos and birds and it makes them think that maybe it’s something they can keep doing in the future.”

Greening Australia senior program officer Andrew Woodroffe said in addition to direct seeding, about 8500 plants had been planted over the sites.

He said direct seeding of native seed endemic to the area, followed up by plantings of some species that were harder to germinate, formed the main approach to the project.

“Usually that’s a combination of over-storey species just to make sure we’ve got the correct mix of biodiversity and vegetation structure going back into the land,” Andrew said.

“On Wardang Island, the local community carried out a burn to rid some of the weedy species, followed up with some niche seeding which is a bit different to direct seeding as it’s done by hand-casting the seed.

“We allocated about 20 kilograms of native seed to that project over 10 ha.

“We also put in 1100 plants on Wardang Island over a couple of planting seasons.”

Andrew said community input had been vital to the project's success, particularly from Narungga man Peter Turner, whose knowledge of Narungga Country, native plants, and their traditional uses played a key role in guiding plant selection.

“Growing conditions have been challenging on Yorkes over the past couple of years - last year even more so with low rainfall,” Andrew said.

“But we saw some really good results, particularly around Cape Elizabeth where we both seeded and planted the area and it has come back really strongly.”

Andrew and Ian said the allied approach to the large-scale coastal revegetation project, with each organisation working towards the same goal, had enabled stronger outcomes.

“There’s been multiple benefits for the environment, but also for people through employment and the wellbeing of the community,” Andrew said.

“All of the areas this project operated in had been cleared historically either for grazing or cropping.

“Yorkes has been cleared pretty extensively of native vegetation, I think reports are that there is as little as 4 per cent native vegetation on YP, so really anything we put back is crucial.

Funded by the Landscape Priorities Fund and Levy. Project partners include councils, Narungga organisations, Landcare and bushfire recovery groups, non-government organisations, landholders, YP Tourism, AGL, Northern & Yorke Local Government Association, Regional Development Australia Yorke and Mid North and local schools.