BREAKING NEWS: Milestone for nature protection!!!

Hello,

I'm shaking with excitement as I write this. Together, we've just helped bring into existence the most significant addition to our parks estate in over a decade – 50,000 hectares of protected bushland into Victoria’s wonderful parks estate.

This morning the Andrews Government announced the creation of three new national parks for Victoria, which will provide permanent protection for over 370 rare and threatened animals, plants and insects.

A commitment to create the new Wombat-Lerderderg National Park (near Daylesford), Mount Buangor National Park (near Beaufort) and the Pyrenees National Park (near Avoca), along with other parks and reserves including a new regional park at Wellsford near Bendigo, has been formally tabled in Victorian Parliament.

This is a win for our wildlife, their habitats and the communities who can enjoy these new parks, whilst protecting their natural values at the same time.  

As Victoria fronts up to alarming rates of ecosystem decline and the real-time impacts of climate change, this news could not come at a better time. 

The creation of these parks will create critical habitat connectivity over a fragmented landscape and be good for both the environment and local economies. For many local community groups this decision has been 15+ years in the making.

The decision has come with strings attached, and we'll be doing a deeper dive on those in the coming days. The legislation still has to be developed and to pass both houses of parliament, so we're not there yet, but much closer.

But today we're focussing on the positive – and thanking the wonderful VNPA community for making this important victory possible.

Thank you for all you do.

Matt Ruchel, Executive Director

P.s You can also celebrate with us on Twitter and Instagram!

The Victorian National Parks Association acknowledges the many First Peoples of the area now known as Victoria and honours their continuing connection to, and caring for, Country. We support Traditional Owner joint-management of parks and public land for conservation of natural and cultural heritage.