Ediegarrup Biodiverse Restoration Project

Ediegarrup Biodiverse Restoration Project is a significant environmental planting project located at the Ediegarrup Reserve, approximately 140km east of Albany and near the locality of Boxwood Hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Registered in June 2023, the project covers approximately 613 hectares of land nestled between the Stirling Range and Fitzgerald River National Parks. This strategic location places it within the "Gondwana Link," an ambitious conservation corridor designed to reconnect fragmented ecosystems across the south-west of the state.

The project operates under the Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings methodology, which involves establishing permanent native vegetation on land that was cleared for agricultural use for at least five years prior. In this specific case, the land was formerly used for cereal cropping (such as wheat and canola) and sheep grazing. The planting strategy is highly biodiverse, incorporating around 150 different native species, including Eucalypts, Hakeas, and Banksias, to replicate the complex vegetation structures of the surrounding bushland.

Environmentally, the region is part of the Southwest Australia Global Biodiversity Hotspot, characterized by a Mediterranean climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 440mm. The local landscape features a complex mosaic of ancient, nutrient-poor soils, typically ranging from sandy duplexes to gravelly laterite. This restoration effort is a collaborative partnership between the proponent, Bush Heritage Australia, and Greening Australia, with funding support from AstraZeneca's global reforestation initiative. Beyond carbon sequestration, the project is explicitly designed to provide critical habitat for threatened fauna, including the Carnaby's Black Cockatoo, Malleefowl, and Tammar Wallaby.