Ecologists buy 1,000-acre blue gum plantation and transform it into wetland it once was
SunSunday 7
updated
SunSunday 7
The abrupt form of Victoria s Mount Abrupt looms behind the new swamps.
(
Share
Print text only
It was 2016, Mark Bachmann was stumped.
He and his team of scientists were three years into transforming a huge tract of agricultural land into the wetland it once was, but had no idea how their small, regional, not-for-profit could negotiate the final step: to buy 1,000 acres of commercial blue gum plantation.
That was when he spotted the platypus. I drove out after a big flood to see how our two trial swamps were looking, I d just taken a few steps off the road and saw a black thing moving up along the bank of a deep drain, Mr Bachmann said.