Project Description
Grassland Resurrection – Connecting Knowledge, Research & Management Forum
8 May, 2026. Fitzroy Town Hall, Melbourne, Victoria
Presenter: Lauren Talbot
Lauren Talbot has a background in environmental science and over a decade working in park management. Starting in bush regeneration and seasons as a Project Fire Fighter, before stepping into the role of Park Ranger. More recently Lauren has been working as a Project Officer-Nature Conservation, focusing on habitat restoration across the prom and the offshore islands. Lauren enjoys all aspects of park management and protecting natural landscapes.
Using fire to reverse Coast Tea-tree invasion of rare coastal grasslands at Wilsons Promontory National Park.
The Coastal Grassy Woodlands of Wilsons Promontory were managed for thousands of years as a Cultural Landscape, especially through the burning practices of Indigenous Australians. Post European settlement much of the grasslands across Victoria faced a wide variety of pressures such as clearing, fire and grazing. Of particular significance is the Calcareous Swale Grassland of the Yanakie Isthmus at Wilsons Promontory, which is the only remaining remnant of this EVC in Victoria. As a result of too much bad fire (sever, large scale, infrequent, wrong time of year) and the introduction of grazing the resilience of desired species was diminished and fires created bare ashbeds for prolific summer seeding shrubs to invade- in particular our largest battle in the Yanakie Isthmus Coast Tea-Tree. Over many years a vast amount of work, research, monitoring and collaborating has gone into restoring the Yanakie Isthmus back to a grassland.
Questions from the Forum
Are these coastal grasslands the EPBC-listed Natural Damp Grasslands that we’ve been hearing a bit about?
The EVCs within the Coastal Grassy Woodlands at WPNP and within the Yanakie Isthmus include:
- Calcareous Swale Grassland
- Coastal Alkaline Scrub
- Coast Banksia Woodland
- Damp Sands Herb-rich Woodland
What is creating the bare ground that initiates the regeneration of coast teatree? Is there rabbits?
- Sheep and cattle were grazed in various sections of Wilsons Promontory between 1850 and 1992, predominately of the flatter grassy woodland areas. This also included installed of fences or “plots” and watering points for stock. Small scale burns were also undertaken by graziers to regenerate pasture for their cattle.
- The many years of grazing led to a degraded native landscape, indigenous plants were grazed to almost nothing and once cattle grazing was ceased and removed from the promontory the bare ground enabled Coast Tea-tree to spread and become over abundant.
- Lack of regular low intensity fire to control the Coast Tea-tree also contributed to it becoming over abundant.
- Rabbits and deer were also introduced which would have contributed to grazing pressure in the grasslands.
Has anyone ever looked into the ‘threatening process’ – waaaay fewer numbers of seals which for a very long time were fertilising those flats just beyond the dunes. Grasslands love nutrients. Heathy woodlands thrive in nutrient poor soils.?
Over time there have been numerous threatening processes
- The introduction of cattle grazing was a catalyst for years of habitat change and degradation. They consumed native grasses and herbs and created changes to soil which led to vast amounts of bare ground which when cattle grazing ceased and bushfires occurred Coast tea-tree took over.
- Invasion by over abundant Native Shrubs
- Grazing pressure, this includes introduced species such as rabbits and deer but also native species such as common wombat, swamp wallabies and eastern grey kangaroos.
- Seals would not have occurred within the grasslands in focus here, they terrain would have been difficult for seals to access and too far from the coast.
- Climate related stressors- periods of drought and less rainfall, higher intensity and frequency fires
How are you managing the abundant grazing animals so that fire carries in the swale grasslands? We did a report for PV circa 2000 recommending reintroduction of dingoes but that wasn’t politically palatable
- We have had a long volunteer based monitoring program in association with La Trobe University monitoring grazer numbers through dung counting throughout the grasslands.
- Our focus since Prom Sanctuary began in 2021 has been on feral grazers such as deer and rabbits. Deer have been the biggest threat to the grasslands.
- We have seen amazing results since the reduction in feral species control.
Oberon Bay Tea tree is thick, but mosaiced in differing ages. In areas the older tea tree is providing habitat and is surprisingly diverse. Is PV looking to going manage it or leave them to a natural process which may take over 100 years?
- We have looked at historical records, fire records and mapped and looked into many aspects of the area between Oberon Bay and Waterloo bay and are also monitoring the spread of Coast Tea-tree over time.
- Fire occurred there in 2005 and that has been the focus of the work we have been doing to mechanically mulch and treat the Coast Tea-tree while we still can. Once it gets beyond 20-25 years the size of the Coast Tea-tree becomes much harder to manually treat and also becomes less coast effective.
- Many of the areas with large mature Coast-Tea Tree will not be treated due to the access and the age (some being close to senescence). Seed declines in CTT the older it gets and does not pose as high a threat as young CTT full of viable seed.
How’s the predator proof fence across the prom going to change things?
- Work has been progressing well on the fence. It will support the vast amount of work that has been delivered to remove predators (cats and foxes) and hog deer from the prom.
- This work will continue and help support native species that are facing increasing threats in many areas across Victoria and Australia.
- It will promote a “safe haven” for species.
After Coast Tea Tree, do you foresee Kunzea becoming the next problem at Wilson’s Prom?
- We have been having many discussions within the Prom and across the state about Kunzea. Some areas post bushfires are seeing overabundance of Kunzea and it risking becoming a monoculture.
- At the Prom we have Kunzea ambigua we have noticed it but it is not limited to areas of higher elevation than the Yanakie Isthmus. There are some areas where it is becoming quite abundant. If anyone has any insights from their own experiences, please reach out.
In areas where the seed bank has been totally depleted, how will PV restore/manage areas of coastal tea, back to a grassland?
- In some areas we have fenced off areas for “seed production plots” to help naturally reseed the areas around those plots and continue to establish a healthy population of species.
- We have also direct seeded into those plots with seed collected on site and some purchased seed if there was limited seed available.
- There have been trial plots to look at direct seeding vs planting out tube stock and to see which had better results and resilience and also for time and cost effectiveness.
- Through returning to a grassland burning regime, it helps promote ecosystem health and seed germination.
In areas of high intensity tea tree burns. How does the grassland re-establish? Is it from seedbank still present or direct seeding?
- There are varying results between our heathlands and grasslands. In the grasslands we have seen many species appear quickly after fire. For example in Souwest burn unit which had very large Coast Tea-tree burnt at a high intensity, after the burn there was a large flush of Coast bitter bush Adriana quadripartite which often explodes after a burn because fire breaks its seed dormancy.
- Due to the increase in light and nutrients we see lots of grasses come back, kangaroo apple, many herbs and groundcovers.
- Some areas may require further monitoring and inclusion of seed broadcasting, plots to establish seed production areas and to establish without grazing pressure or direct planting (e.g. in some areas for banksias or eucalypt species)
