Based on outstanding results from a previous habitat restoration project, the Ross Trust has backed the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater to expand their work with a challenge and change grant of $164,000.

The Yarra Ranges-based conservation organisation, will continue its work restoring the habitat of our Victorian State emblem.

Greeting news of the grant with signature enthusiasm, Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater President, Alan Clayton, wrote about the grant in a column in the HeHo Herald, saying the latest funding was the result of ongoing conversation and consultation with the Trust, which had allowed the organisation to reflect and build on its strategic plan.

The grant will help secure the long-term financial viability of the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater and expand on their habitat extension work, which has already met with significant success in increasing bird population numbers.

Thanks to some previous work on Sheepstation Creek in the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater have seen the bird population grow from all but extinction, to 200 plus.

Read more about their work to help move the honeyeater off the critically endangered lists.

The new funds from the Ross Trust will allow the continuation of the ‘Beyond Yellingbo’ strategy of working with landholders to secure corridors of suitable habitat along the waterways out of the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, which help guard against the possible impacts of fire and disease.

Ideally the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater would like to see future colonies outside of the Reserve, thanks to enhanced habitats.

“The grant will also allow us to expand our current efforts in biodiversity conservation and education. An important element of the program will involve the exploration of a range of options that can provide sustainable income streams to underpin our existing operations and a fiscally-responsible expansion of activities in existing and new areas,” Alan wrote.