Wurdi Youang is located within 15,000 hectares of land that it is covered by a “Public Acquisition Overlay” (PAO) to protect native grasslands in Melbourne’s west. These grasslands have been identified as some of the most important areas for conservation in Australia due to their rapid depletion. The property has been declared as an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA). As part of the IPA declaration process WAC applied the Monitoring Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) framework to Wurdi Youang’s natural resource management practises. An outcome of this process identified the need to develop an ecological restoration management plan. Specifically, the plan was developed to provide clear management guide lines for undertaking restoration activities within Wurdi Youang over a five-year period.
Ecobalance was engaged by Wathaurong Cooperative to prepare a detailed ecological restoration plan for their property known as Wurdi Youang.
The aims of the plan are to ensure that remnant and regrowth native grassland rehabilitation is implemented in an integrated and systematic way, through using best practice principles and methodologies. The Ecological Restoration Objectives were: