General News
16 October, 2025
Restoring natural habitats
TWO Northern Beaches community groups and not-for-profits will share in $64,000 to restore and enhance natural areas across Cairns through the regional council’s revegetation of natural areas grant program.
The program helps local organisations rehabilitate degraded landscapes, protect native biodiversity and improve climate resilience.
The 2025/26 funding will support:
Marlin Coast Men’s Shed Inc. ($16,475) to extend its Moore’s Gully revegetation project at Trinity Beach, building on earlier work to remove invasive trees and replant native species. The project will also improve creek-side vegetation, remove hazardous wire fencing and establish fodder grassland to support local wallaby populations.
The Agile Project – Wildlife Rescue Inc. ($17,180) for the first stage of restoring former construction zones at Bluewater Parklands. The funding will help transform mown paddock areas into native forest to reduce weeds, roadkill risks and maintenance costs while boosting wildlife habitat.
The men’s shed project is on both sides of Moore’s Gully as well as the vacant paddock to the west of Moore’s Gully north of the Marlin Coast Bowls Club.
Stage 1 involves removal of invasive tree and shrub species, plant appropriate tree species (1500) and rehabilitate the fringing area along both sides of the creek banks
Stage 2 involves 750 trees for infill planting in areas between the newly-established trees, providing a continuous habitat connection and removing invasive tree species along western side of Moore’s Gully
Stage 3 involves creating suitable fodder grassland in degraded weedy patches to sustain the existing agile wallaby population and remove and disposing of old unused wire fencing.
The Agile Project funding has four goals:
Reduce the maintenance costs to Cairns Regional Council for continually mowing and slashing grassy and weedy areas that could be forests.
Increase the quality of wildlife habitat by replacing mowed grassland areas dominated by non-native species with a native forest, comprised of locally native tree species.
Reduce the amount of preferred agile wallaby habitat (grasslands of any kind, surrounded by forest). By reducing the local population by a small amount, the significant and disappointing number of casualties (especially on Roberts Drive and Navigation Drive) can also be reduced
Reduce the cost to the council for removing macropod casualties on Navigation Drive and streets that border these planting areas.
