Racecourse Lagoon Reserve lies about 3 km south of Uralla in the New England region of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, where Uralla Shire Council manages 41 ha of Crown land, including about 15 ha of lagoon. The lagoon is one of the New England Lagoons, which are shallow, temporary upland wetlands recognised as a nationally significant Endangered Ecological Community. The project is restoring the degraded New England Grassy Woodland that surrounds and drains into the Lagoon.
LFA’s role in the project
The Landscape Foundation of Australia (LFA) has supported this project from the outset. In 2022, LFA director and registered landscape architect, Noel Corkery, worked with Uralla Council officers to prepare a grant application to the NSW Environmental Trust. After securing a $143,000 grant in 2023 to fund the restoration program, Noel helped prepare the revegetation specifications.
Planting in stages
Planting has been carried out in stages by the Armidale Tree Group. Stage 1 established around 3,500 seedlings across roughly 12 ha of degraded grassy woodland. The second stage, comprising a further 4,000 seedlings, was delayed by drought conditions. With the season now turned, that planting has been completed, bringing the total to about 7,500 native plants and completing the revegetation program.
Recent aerial photographs supplied by Uralla Shire Council capture the scale of the new plantings across the Lagoon’s immediate catchment. As it is established, the woodland planting will stabilise the lagoon edges and rebuild a resilient ecosystem, providing shade and food for native and migratory birds.
The Foundation previously reported on the community planting day at the Reserve picnic area when more than 25 local volunteers of all ages planted some 200 trees and shrubs. This level of community engagement with ZNET Uralla and support of Council demonstrates LFA’s strategic priority of building community capacity in action.
What’s next
With this major planting now complete, the focus will be on establishment, maintenance and ongoing care. The Foundation congratulates everyone involved, including Uralla Shire Council, ZNET Uralla, the Armidale Tree Group and the NSW Environmental Trust. This project shows how landscape expertise, community effort and targeted funding can bring a degraded site back to ecological health.
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