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Inviting native guests
The Background
Brieanna's family home was built in 1925 in an area established for livestock grazing and wool growing. Early settlers indicated that the land was heavily timbered with white box and ironbark and that native bird life was plentiful. Today, the family's garden is typically English in style, surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees that unfortunately supply no real food source or shelter for many native birds. The most common birds seen are Magpies, Swallows and Galahs. Brieanna wanted to explore ways the land could continue to support biodiversity. Aiming to address this important global environment issue on a local level she embarked on a project to bring back helpful native flora and fauna into her own garden.
The Project
Brieanna realised that redesigning the whole yard at once would be an enormous and expensive task so she decided to do one section at a time. Stage 1 of the design focussed on a roundabout section along the driveway. As part of her research, she met with Warren and Gloria Sheather at their nearby property in Yallaroo, sharing their experiences in creating their award winning Australian native garden.
Brieanna designed the garden with a watering feeder system as a focus point, surrounded by a variety of native plants. She considering the territorial nature of many birds, as well as the type and number of birds she wanted to invite to her garden. With this in mind, she aimed for the right balance of habitat, housing selection and positioning, clean water and feed (even considering a de-icer to provide the birds with access to clean water in the chilly winter months).
The Journey
- Brieanna considered how to address the global issue of biodiversity conservation at a personal level, increasing her knowledge of the local environment and committing to take action to support environmental remediation.
- Brieanna took the opportunity to work collaboratively with people 'beyond family and the school gate', learning that she was part of a wider community of people creating more sustainable places to live.
- This project considered the core sustainability issue of inter-relationships and the effects of our daily decisions upon the natural environment.
Biodiversity conservation is an important sustainability issue that every one can address in their own backyard. We can all make everyday decisions to encourage natural habitat that supports a range of species, particularly native birds.
