phil's forest: the big scrub and our native wildlife
Our Big Scrub Lowland Subtropical Rainforest
Did you know the Northern Rivers used to hold 75,000ha of Australia's largest lowland subtropical rainforest? Honeyvale Farm would have been right near the centre of it. Imagine the effect that clearing this rainforest had on our local environment. There is now less than 1% left of this descendant of our amazing Gondwana heritage. We believe that farms need to provide more than just food as part of a healthy environment. Honeyvale has teamed up with Greenfleet, Australia's first carbon offset provider, to replant 8ha of Honeyvale Farm creek flat back to The Big Scrub. These 16,000 trees cannot be logged for 100 years. Planting was delayed by the recent floods but our very short rainforest is in the ground at last! Photo credit: The first tree going in the ground Monday 19th September 2022, courtesy of Greenfleet.
Learn more about The Big Scrub at https://www.bigscrubrainforest.org/
Learn more about Greenfleet at https://www.greenfleet.com.au/
Who was Phil Morrison?
Jackie's father Phil Morrison was a bush regeneration specialist who cared deeply for our natural environment. It was Phil who pointed out that you can't just fence off and revegetate a creek bank if you are serious about providing ecological services. You need a decent size area with plenty of protected centre for species who just can't live near the forest edge. Exposed edges is all that you have with a long, thin creek corridor. So it is thanks to Phil that Honeyvale Farm made the decision to give 8ha of beautiful alluvial soils back to it's original owner- the Big Scrub. Photo credit: From left to right, Phil's brother David Morrison, Phillip Morrison and their late sister Susan Morrison. All champions of our natural environment in their own way.
Our native residents
Our native residents are just as important to us and even more important to the ecosystem services offered by Honeyvale Farm. Our patch of The Big Scrub will provide a home and a way for wildlife to pass through our property. Our farm hosts microbats, echidnas, bandicoots, brown snakes, pythons, magpies, kookaburras, currawongs, butcher birds, superb fairy wrens, red masked finches, white cheeked honeyeaters, restless flycatchers, welcome swallows, blue banded bees and more other species of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects than we can count. We can't wait until our rainforest is tall enough to add nest boxes and provide some serious habitat!
You can identify local birdlife using https://www.birdlife.org.au