Caring for Country | Australian native plants | Gardening Australia

Costa heads to the Blue Mountains to meet a community caring for a very special gully.
At the headwaters of the Katoomba Falls Creek is a 30-hectare bushland reserve on the traditional lands of the Gundungurra and Dharug peoples.
Senior Gundungurra elder Aunty Sharyn Halls has a strong connection to this gully. In 1891 “this is where we actually settled, and it became an Aboriginal mission.” In the beginning there were 8 Aboriginal families and the community continued to grow - until the land was destroyed for development of a racetrack.
Gundungurra elder David King says although there was a community living here, “in some people’s eyes they didn’t exist, so they just came in and flattened the whole place”, demolishing the delicate environment. In 2002 the land was handed back to the community and with the support of local Aboriginal people like Aunty Sharyn, David worked with Garguree Swampcare to restore the land back to its original state.
As the site centrepiece, it was vital to get the swamp functioning again to then bring the rest of site back to life, including remnant rainforest heath and open woodlands.
Volunteers come from all over the Blue Mountains area to help with regenerating the site through planting and weeding. Any revegetation project comes with the challenge of tackling weeds, and here are brought in from parks and gardens through the waterways, wind, and birds.
Key species being reintroduced are tea trees, gahnias, and dianellas, which all have traditional Aboriginal uses and help regenerate and hold onto the soil.
Aunty Sharyn says “the restoration work we do here is extremely important - it’s about sharing our story, a place, but it’s also about bringing back to people the connection we have with everything that happens here. Each plant that we put in has its own story and its own lifecycle, and you can feel the past as well as the present.”
Whist the gully is a beautiful space combined with a successful revegetation project, David looks even deeper. “As you bring back what is your natural country, the country where the stories were, a lot of the people then remember. That’s one key driver for me, is to try and get a bit of bush back where they remember.”
Featured Plants
JAPANESE HONEYSUCKLE Lonicera japonica
MONBRETIA Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora
BROAD-LEAFED PRIVET Ligustrum lucidum
TEA TREE Leptospermum sp.
GAHNIA Gahnia sp.
DIANELLA Dianella sp.
Filmed on Dharug & Gundungurra Country
See the latest content from Gardening Australia as it goes live by hitting subscribe: ab.co/GA-subscribe
Watch Gardening Australia on ABC iview: iview.abc.net.au/programs/gard...
About Gardening Australia:
Gardening Australia is an ABC TV program providing gardening know-how and inspiration. Presented by Australia's leading horticultural experts, Gardening Australia is a valuable resource to all gardeners through the television program, the magazine, books, DVDs and extensive online content.
Connect with other Gardening Australia fans:
Like Gardening Australia on Facebook: / gardeningaustralia
Follow Gardening Australia on Instagram: / gardeningaustralia
Visit the Gardening Australia website: www.abc.net.au/gardening
This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation KZbin channel.
********
Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC's Online Conditions of Use www.abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3).

[@adriand2826]

Thank you. More of this native australian content please

[@Joy1957K]

3.56m .... Rowe said it ...... "I think we really need to return some of the privelege we had' ......

[@edavid2557]

Thank you for your hard work and bringing back the plants who belong to the land and memory of Katoomba ♥️

[@razisamimi9287]

Great job. Hope you plant more big trees for the wildlife.

[@bakanyan333]

Would love to learn more about rejuvenating native land

[@tallatee1962]

Totally agree with you 😊

[@hilaorganics9280]

Love this!!!!

[@oiavh]

Wonderful work they are doing! But I am surprised it was first in 2002 they got the rights back to their land. That took way too long...

[@Fazendinha_TAS]

Love GA! Only comment would be to include everyone's full name to the story. It shouldn't matter who is, if they've been interviewed they should be acknowledged as the others.

[@StreetMachine18]

Fair point. Except for minors. If the parents want to protect them then first name is fine. For Rowe, she might only go by one name like Cher!

[@NashvilleMonkey1000]

The Gundengarren people have amazingly majestic beards~

[@alexanderjsdowding]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think broad-leaf privet, Japanese honeysuckle or Montbretia are native Australian plants. Why are they planting these species in a supposedly Australian native garden?

[@oiavh]

I am pretty sure the plants you mention, he was listing the weeds they are fighting with and not the plants they are restoring with.

[@pieceofpecanpie]

As oviah mentioned, these plants are not part of native restoration. He was listing some of the weeds that pop up, particularly from seeds in the water.

[@alexanderjsdowding]

@@oiavh Thank you. I must have missed the part where he said they were the weeds. Now it makes total sense.

[@StreetMachine18]

Thats dumb. You dont need to put up premieres. We will all watch it when it goes live.

[@janecanaway4004]

no clips go on KZbin until they've already been broadcast in an episode.

[@StreetMachine18]

@@janecanaway4004 that makes sense but when you click a video on youtube you expect to be able to watch it. you don't wanna click on a video and then have it tell you you have to wait three days to watch it because it's not live yet. right?