This month, the Foundation awarded $8.5 million in grants. These included one major grant, five Environment grants (see details below), and two Community Wellbeing grants providing continued funding for existing projects.

Major

World Vision Australia

West Kimberley Early Childhood Care and Development Project (Phase Two)

$2 million over 4 years

This grant supports the second phase of an Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) project in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. It follows a previous grant of $2.2 million in 2018 towards Phase One of this project, which supported the establishment of the ECCD program in three remote Indigenous communities in West Kimberley, Looma, Yungngora and Jarlmadangah, and transitioned six existing communities supported in this region to Ngunga Women's Group Aboriginal Corporation.

The ECCD program establishes early childhood hubs in communities and delivers a supported playgroup program to local families and other wrap-around services. The program is characterised by extensive engagement and relationship building with communities and organisations, a focus on parent empowerment and ownership, capacity strengthening, community development, and a gradual and sustainable transfer of project management to community through strong partnerships. World Vision Australia (WVA) has successfully employed this approach in fourteen communities, with all former sites transitioned to local management.

Phase Two continues to focus on children and families in Looma and Yungngora, while emphasising strengthening capability and coordination across the West Kimberley region through a professional learning network. As part of the project, WVA will also codify and disseminate the model and transition process and establish an ECCD community of practice to create opportunities for further learning and collaboration, working in partnership with SNAICC.

This renewed funding extends the Foundation's support to nine years in line with other place-based grants to Children's Ground (10 years), Karrkad Kanjdji Trust (10 years) and Tomorrow Today Foundation's Education Benalla program (20 years). 

Environment

Nature Glenelg Trust

Inspiring a new era of wetland restoration on private land across south-eastern Australia
$1.35 million over 5 years

 Nature Glenelg Trust (NGT) was founded by ecologist Mark Bachmann in 2011 to address the need for a regionally based NGO to focus on ecological restoration, particularly in agricultural areas. It is a pioneering institution for land restoration in southern Australia, and since 2012, NGT has restored over 70 wetlands and enhanced more than 3,500 ha of wetland habitat.

This five-year project will inspire, educate and enable private land managers to restore wetland habitats to benefit biodiversity and improve the sustainability of water resources across south-eastern Australia.  The Brolga (a small population in southern Australia) and Growling Grass Frog (now virtually extinct across much of its former range) depend on these wetlands for breeding and feeding habitat, and are flagship species for the project.  

NGT will restore a mix of freshwater wetlands (shallow meadows, deep marshes, and swamps) at two NGT properties – Wirey and Walker swamps - and eight privately owned properties in the Grampians/Gariwerd region. Its goals are to:

• Establish three wetland restoration demonstration sites to show practical restoration options and build landholder confidence and skills.
• Improve the condition and extent of wetland habitats on private land to increase resilience to climate change and wildfires, and provide additional breeding habitat for aquatic species.
• Increase understanding within the local community and amongst stakeholders about the complementary ecological, hydrological and landscape benefits of restoration.
• Monitor, describe and promote learnings about ecological and hydrological responses to wetland restoration and rewetting, and their value to climate change adaptation.

Tangaroa Blue Foundation

Expanding AMDI: Community-Led Action to Reduce Marine Debris at its Source
$1 million over 4 years

Tangaroa Blue Foundation is dedicated to removing and preventing marine pollution. It was established in 2004 by ocean conservationist Heidi Tait in response to the growing issue of marine debris, primarily plastics, impacting Australia's coastlines.

Initially, a small community-led initiative, it has since grown into a national and international movement, bringing together volunteers, government agencies, research institutions, and industry partners to tackle marine pollution at its source.

Tangaroa Blue's Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) is a national network using a robust framework and citizen scientists to clean up marine debris and use the data collected from clean-up activities to develop long-term solutions to marine pollution.

Through AMDI, Tangaroa Blue not only removes rubbish from beaches and waterways but also identifies the sources of that pollution and helps implement scalable and measurable strategies to prevent waste from entering the ocean. By combining hands-on clean-ups with science, policy advocacy, and education, Tangaroa Blue empowers individuals and organisations to take action to safeguard marine ecosystems for future generations.

This grant supports a major expansion of the AMDI from the current 70 sites to Tangaroa Blue’s strategic goal of 150 sites nationwide. This expansion will establish new monitoring sites in underrepresented regions, engage local communities through training workshops, and implement regular quarterly surveys.

The AMDI program reduces risks to wildlife by preventing ingestion, entanglement, and habitat destruction. It also stops debris from degrading into microplastics, protecting ecosystems and human health. Additionally, removal efforts enhance coastal resilience by reducing navigational hazards and preventing damage to habitats such as coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves.

The Source Reduction Plans, developed with data collected from beach cleanups, are a valuable tool in engaging governments, Councils and businesses to identify where pollution comes from and ways to reduce it.

Central Victorian Biolinks Alliance

Scaling up forest repair across the Victorian Goldfields for climate adaptation
$996,000 over 3 years

The Biolinks Alliance was founded in 2010 by community members and ecologists in Central Victoria who identified the critical need for large-scale ecological restoration to halt environmental and species decline. The Biolinks Alliance has grown to include a network of 19-member Landcare and environmental groups, representing over 2,000 landholders, working together to restore ecological function to lands from the Grampians to the Australian Alps, and from the Dividing Ranges to the Murray River.

This grant supports the Scaling up Forest Repair project to significantly scale up ecological restoration of Victoria's Box–Ironbark forests, which are listed as a critically endangered ecosystem with only 13% remaining.

The project builds upon the pilot phase (Local-to-Landscape, also funded by the Foundation in 2021) with plans to implement the proven Local-to-Landscape restoration model to build ecosystem resilience to a hotter and more variable climate in Central Victoria. The goal is to restore 450 ha of Box–Ironbark forest on private land in four regions in central Victoria: St Arnaud, Castlemaine, Bendigo and Rushworth.

Two demonstration sites will be situated in each of the four regions. and over the project's life, four community groups and 50 landowners will be trained and supported to undertake their own restoration projects, resulting in another 2500 ha of restoration. This will establish the model in a sustainable way so that communities can roll it out independently after the project is completed.

Community participation and a joint science and grassroots approach are at the heart of this project. While planned at a landscape scale to achieve impact, the project is implemented at a regional and site/property-specific level to ensure community ownership and participation. The project is highly collaborative with Trust for Nature, Landcare networks and groups, local government and researchers engaged throughout.

Tasmanian Land Conservancy

Building Ecosystem Resilience: A Tasmanian Model for Renewal at Silver Plains
$961,400 over 5 years

The Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) was established in 2001 and has become one of Tasmania's largest conservation organisations. It aims to protect nature on private land, in partnership with landholders, and on its own reserves.

TLC does this by buying land of high conservation value to protect habitats for native species, keeping some sites of significance within their reserve system, where they conduct scientific research and monitoring that informs their land restoration and management. After employing covenants or stewardship agreements for permanent environmental protection, TLC also on-sell other land purchases through their revolving fund, which has protected 80,000 ha to date.

The Silver Plains project will focus on protecting a largely intact landscape at scale by addressing key threats: altered hydrology (drains), feral deer and invasive weeds. It will embed scientific research and local community engagement into the site management approach.

This place-based project will demonstrate how landscape-scale conservation management can enhance the ecological resilience of threatened ecosystems and species through addressing key threats. Located in the Central Highlands of Tasmania, Silver Plains is geographically and ecologically significant, covering 6,595ha with vast Eucalyptus forests and high-biodiversity marshlands supporting 14 threatened fauna and 11 threatened flora.

The project includes four streams of on-site research into peat marshland hydrological restoration, carbon sequestration in peat wetlands, Latham's Snipe research, and a Fallow Deer control study.

Morning Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve Foundation

Restoring the Coastal Ecosystems of Western Port Bay
$900,000 over 3 years

The Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve Foundation — known as Western Port Biosphere (WPB) — is the steward of south-eastern Australia's only UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve, one of only five UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in Australia.

WPB is dedicated to fostering climate resilience, environmental conservation, and sustainable development. For over 20 years, it has worked with communities, businesses, and government to protect and enhance the unique ecosystems of Western Port, a Ramsar-listed wetland of international significance, and its hinterlands.

Over three years, this project will restore and protect 500 ha of saltmarsh, mangrove, and seagrass habitats in Western Port Bay. These coastal wetlands provide critical ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, shoreline stabilisation, and habitat for diverse marine and bird species, as well as fishing, tourism and nature-based recreation. However, they are under increasing pressure from climate change, erosion, and historical land-use changes.

This project will deliver on-ground restoration, establish long-term monitoring, and engage the community in conservation efforts to enhance the resilience of these ecosystems within the UNESCO Western Port Biosphere Reserve.

The Foundation’s funding will enable WPB to:

• Revegetate Western Port coastlines through fencing, hydrology restoration works, and mangrove planting to help control erosion and stabilise shorelines.
• Establish a long-term monitoring program in partnership with RMIT's Centre for Nature Positive Solutions, leveraging their expertise in ecological research, blue carbon assessments and restoration science.
• Engage 200+ community members through planting days, citizen science programs, and educational outreach to foster environmental stewardship.

All grants awarded can be viewed in the Grants Database.