Photo: Patrick Kavanagh | Flickr | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
create a wildlife garden
Your garden can play an important role in providing food and shelter for wildlife. Plus you can have nature close to you.
There are many ways of creating your very own 'wildlife garden' including planting locally native plants, adding a bird-bath or making a high-rise home for beautiful native bees.
You’ll have the birds and butterflies flocking your way as you provide a stepping stone to nearby bushland.
Get involved!
A great way to get to know people and enjoy the Bendigo bushland is by joining a community and/or sporting group, many of which host activities in the Bendigo bushland.
The City of Greater Bendigo also runs educational events and community tree planting activities. Contact details for these organisations can be found on our Resources page.
Visit your local reserve
Exploring your local park or bushland reserve is a great way to have fun, get fit and spend time in nature.
By keeping to the tracks, taking your waste home and leaving the area as you found it, you’ll help ensure the bushland is kept healthy.
Go with the flow
Bendigo is naturally a very dry area, and so its creeks and wetlands play a critical role in providing cool refuges and homes for plants and animals.
You can help keep these waterways clean by reducing water use in the home and garden, ensuring no pollutants go down your drain, and by mulching. It also helps to reduce the amount of hard surfaces such as concrete around your home.
Plant a tree
Trees, especially large mature ones, are a key part of the landscape. They provide shelter, food and breeding sites for many plants and animals.
Planting or looking after trees helps ensure we have big trees in the future. Install a nesting box if your trees do not contain hollows and help create a home for wildlife!
Fire – be informed and prepared
Fire management is an important issue. Local plants and animals have evolved to cope with some levels of fire but too much can be damaging.
Having the right knowledge to make informed decisions can help us find a balance in our backyards between the needs of native wildlife and being fire-ready.
Visit www.bendigo.vic.gov.au or www.cfa.vic.gov.au for more info.
Keep your pets and wildlife safe
Protect your pets and local wildlife by keeping your best friends on your property – your pets can easily become injured or lost in the bush. It’s also important to remember that the City of Greater Bendigo has established a sunrise to sunset cat curfew.
A good way to keep your cat happy is to install a cat enclosure to keep them safe while allowing them access to the outdoors.
Find wildlife in all sorts of places!
Many animals live and visit unlikely places outside of the bushland. One of these places is Rosalind Park at dusk when you can see Brush-tail Possums and Grey-headed Flying-foxes.
Kangaroos and their joeys graze on the lawns at La Trobe University, golf courses and other grassed areas around Bendigo. What else can you find?