Established in 2003, Grow West is one of Victoria’s most ambitious programs of landscape restoration.

With a vision to rejuvenate 10,000 hectares across the Upper and Middle Werribee Catchment, west of Melbourne, the program is transforming degraded landscape through sustainable land management practices such as revegetation and the protection and enhancement of remnant vegetation.

These efforts are helping to:

• increase biodiversity,
• create vital biolinks between native habitats,
• improve waterway health, and
• provide long-term control of weeds, pest animals and erosion.

Environmental benefits

Grow West is working to improve both the visible and working landscapes in the program area and bring the following environmental benefits:

• Improved stability of land through the reduction in noxious weeds, rabbits, water contaminants, salinity, erosion and sedimentation
• Increased habitat for native flora and fauna
• Enhancement and protection of existing biodiversity
• Increased linkages between areas of native vegetation
• Improved condition of the waterways
• Advice on best practice management

The Grow West Team has been running events, field days and training packages in conjunction with partners such as councils and Melbourne Water to help inform landowners of the beenfits of being involved in our programs.

Social benefits

The local community, including landowners, volunteers, community groups, councils and businesses, are all central to the success of Grow West and its programs.

Without question, the opportunity for landholders to work together, to share resources and experiences, to dovetail their treatment plans for animal and weed control and to get together to share their successes is important to the success of Grow West’s goals.

Grow West runs field days and events throughout the year to facilitate these conversations. These events include the annual Grow West Community Planting Day, which is held in partnership with a wide range of local organisations.

The social and community benefits that Grow West creates include:

• Recognition, awareness and understanding within the community of local natural resources issues
• Sense of pride in working to resolve local land management issues
• Increased cooperation between sectors of the community
• Increased attractiveness of landscape
• Increased social cohesion

Economic benefits

Grow West’s goal is to repair and restore the landscape in the program area through projects that improve the productivity and viability of the local landscape.

Additionally, Grow West is working with a range of partners who are invested in the health and viability of the land in this area and have pledged their support into the future.

The Grow West Team works with both landholders and corporate supporters to undertake programs that protect existing native vegetation, help restore and replant new vegetation and treat weeds and pest animals, to ensure the health of the land and waterways within the area.

Grow West brings significant economic benefit to the program area, including:

• Increased land productivity
• Access to funding to enable land improvement activities
• Access to resourcing and expertise to enable land improvement activities
• Access to advice and information
• Reclamation of eroded, saline and weed infested areas
• Attraction of funding/business to the area
• Employment in the environmental industry
• Attraction of tourists to the area
• Increased markets for locally produced and sold products