Project Description
Grassland Resurrection – Connecting Knowledge, Research & Management Forum
8 May, 2026. Fitzroy Town Hall, Melbourne, Victoria
Megan O’Shea Rick Van Keulen and Amanda Dodd
Iramoo: three decades of restoration
Rick Van Keulen, Amanda Dodd and Megan O’Shea have been working with the Cairnlea Conservation Reserves Committee of Management for more than a decade to restore three remnant native grasslands in the Melbourne suburb of Cairnlea, including Iramoo Wildflower Grassland Reserve. Rick is a dedicated land manager with a wealth of local knowledge, outstanding observation skills, has the capacity to respond to current and local conditions, and is inventive and a good problem-solver. Amanda has been involved with the Iramoo grasslands for over 20 years and is a founding member of the Cairnlea Conservation committee of management and current secretary. Megan has a background in ecological research, working on Striped Legless Lizards and Spiny Rice-flower. Megan currently leads The GREEN Lab @ Iramoo (Grasslands | Research | Education | Engagement | Nursery) which is a nexus between land managers, community groups and Victoria University – all working for great grasslands.
Q & A from the forum
- In the featherheads grasslands, how long had it been since sun lilies were last seen prior to the kangaroo grass hay application? I’m wondering about the longevity and resilience of the seedbank.
- The Thelymitra come up every year and we continue to find more of them. The first orchids were found during the restoration process – so pretty early on.
- What’s involved with a Serrated Tussock seed fence?
- Very simple. It is a chicken wire fence that is oriented to intersect the prevailing wind conditions at the time of the Serrated Tussock seeding event in November. Although we do have them in other directions as well, depending on the spaces that we are trying to defend. The first fence was about two metres high but all other other fences are just a single width of chicken wire.
- Has the orchid reintroduction been successful at Iramoo Grasslands? Any key lessons learnt?
- We are due to do some follow up assessments. We had two re-introductions of Diurus basaltica – in the first one, the plants survived and flowered in the first couple of years but disappeared after that – we found that they were being eaten by slugs. For the second Diuris basaltica re-introduction and also the Diuris fragrantissima, we did a burn first and then baiting to control the slugs.
- How’re all the creatures like Striped Legless Lizards going at Iramoo?
- We think there has been a decline in Striped Legless Lizards at Iramoo and we are hoping to run assessments this spring. As illustrated in the talk, there has been a lot of change at the reserve over the last two decades and it is unclear what may be driving the possible decline.
- Megan, you spoke about the floral diversity and forb plantings at Featherheads Reserve, but what can you tell us about Featherheads at this site?
- The site does support (I think) 6 individual Featherheads plants. We don’t see these every year and some may have perished. We have noticed that slugs also graze on the Featherheads plants and this needs to be managed. We also note that the Featherheads grassland is on a rise, with the surrounding houses at a lower elevation. As part of the construction of the suburb, a road was cut in around the reserve – we are concerned that this has altered the hydrology, with possible impacts on our Featherheads plants (which are probably very old and with long tap roots).
- What’s your thoughts on nature strip grasslands?
- We started these as seed production areas. It was a lot of work to keep them weed free but Katherine and Sophia at University of Melbourne have done some great work on creating nature strip grasslands – I would refer you to them and their GPN presentations on this topic. Nature strips are areas that could be considered unused space and have the potential to provide stepping stone connections for fauna (and genes) in the landscape.
- What development decision has been made about that orphan grassland on the southern edge of Cairnlea on the ring road?
- This area has been slated for destruction by the Victorian Government (details not forthcoming) and with EPBC approval. Refer to Basalt Buddies for actions. It should be protected as part of the Jones Creek Grassland Corridor. It has a healthy stand of Kangaroo Grass, at least one Spiny Rice-flower plant, probably a population of Striped Legless Lizards and Tussock Skinks, and a variety of flora which is likely to include Convolvulus angustissimus (confirmed), Lomandra micrantha (confirmed), Apserula conferta, Plantago gaudichaudii. Once a road has been built through this grassland, the way is open for an adjacent privately owned grassland that is landlocked – we will also lose this one which has Wahlenbergia capillaris, Stackhousia subterranea, Pimelea curviflora, Hypericum, Rumex dumosus etc. Check out the Basalt Buddies presentation when they are made available – will you join an action with them?
- I manage a creek / gorge that in large areas is 100% Chilean needle grass. If I sprayed it out with round up, what would be your follow up moves?? Further spraying over many years to deplete the CNG? Native seed addition? Planting?
- Rick has been spraying and planting Themeda cells about 1m apart, to at least get some natives back. He has also spread a grass seed mix. He acknowledges that he will have to start spot-spraying from now on, so it becomes about tipping the balance in favour of the re-introduced natives, rather than expecting a clean slate.
- What was the lowest point of the journey and how did you get through?’
- When we formed the second Committee of Management, our Kangaroo Grass in M1, M2 and M3 was getting a bit old (senescent). We had a very poorly timed burn in April. It had been relatively warm up until the day of the burn, which went ahead but with such a severe weather change that we had a dump of rain that extinguished the fire and then we went straight in to very cold winter conditions after that. The senescent Kangaroo Grass did not have the capacity to recover from the fire before winter and many died and were replaced by a carpet of tiny Serrated Tussock seedlings. Rick and John spent a lot of time controlling the Serrated Tussock. The areas are much better now but the impact was pretty devastating.
- Offsets, are generally crap and underwhelming…. How do you mitigate the shitness of offsets ?
- I don’t know. I guess that is a call to push back against the system and make sure that we are having what little grassland remains protected. Following that, pushing for the best offsets that we can get – preferably close to the site that is being destroyed. I always wonder what the equivalence is between a site destroyed in Melbourne and a rural offset site that does not appear to be under threat. How can something that is not under threat be an offset?
