The Wombat Forest, photo by Joslin Moore (ARI)
In short
|
What’s happening to the Wombat Forest
The Wombat State Forest is entering a new stage of forest management.
In response to the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council’s Central West Investigation Final Report, government has committed to create the Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, and to implement the park in partnership with three Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAPs) (Dja Dja Wurrung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung). The national park is expected to be created in 2025–2026.
This transition offers a chance to transform the Wombat Forest and heal past harms. Historically, First Nations people were excluded from the forest, stopping their traditional management practices. The forest also faced disturbances from gold mining, extensive logging and recent windstorms. In recent decades, there has been debate on the forest’s use, ranging from timber production, recreation, biodiversity conservation and cultural purposes.
In advance of the park being created, ARI has worked with Parks Victoria, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and the three RAPs to develop a shared vision and approach for aspirational co-management arrangements for a healthy forest with vibrant and rich ecological and cultural communities.
What we did
In 2023, ARI gathered with First Nations and government agencies to discuss their aspirations and explore ways to achieve them (outlined below in ‘Building a Joint Management Vision’). Together, a new vision of the Wombat Forest was developed that considers both healthy ecological and cultural communities.
ARI met on Country with the future co-managers of the Wombat Forest to facilitate conversations about its future. Together, we discussed the forests values, the management challenges and how their vision for the forest can be achieved.
We also spent time in the forest discussing specific places (i.e. case studies) with the aim to connect values and management options and better understand the perspectives of future co-managers.
Caption: Areas considered when discussing partner aspirations for the future management of the Wombat Forest.
Caption: Co-manager vsion (centre) and values as they relate to Healthy Country and Healthy People.
Visiting a spring-fed soak on Wadawurrung Country, we discussed the importance of the site for Wadawurrung people as a place to practice culture. We identified the important biological and cultural values. Also, we discussed how we could track change in vegetation (i.e. monitoring) and what actions might help ensure this place is protected from threats like climate change, weed invasion and pest animals. This is now an important place for Wadawurrung that they regularly visit and manage.
From left to right- Monitoring, Weaving and ecological values in the Wombat Forest, Photos by Dr Brad Farmilo (ARI)
We visited degraded parts of the forest showing the legacy of logging, mining (called "up-side-down Country" by First Nations partners), and windstorms. In these places we discussed what values these places retain, how values might be restored, and when actions might be prioritised.
From left to right - images of forestry activity, soil damage and windstorm impacts, photos by Dr Brad Farmilo and Dr Joslin Moore
Building a joint management vision
ARI drew on the principles of structured decision making and expert elicitation to develop a customised approach to facilitating a joint management vision for the Wombat Forest. It was designed to provide guidance for future joint management opportunities that respect the objectives and values of both Traditional Owner groups and government agencies.
Facilitation steps:
- Foundation: Build trust and meaningful relationships among all partners. This foundation of the project was established before the project over many years of conversations and collaboration between Traditional Owners and managing agencies.
- Review Strategic Documents: Analyse strategic documents from partners, including Country Plans and strategy documents.
- Literature Review: Conduct a literature review of forest management approaches and past land uses for the area.
Through workshops held with each First Nations group separately, and agency partners as a single group:
- Identify values and objectives
- Identify actions and consequences
- Workshop 1: Identify and rank both values and management objectives.
- Workshop 2: Identify possible actions to achieve objectives and assess their likely benefit or harm on management objectives.
- On-Country Discussions: Visit case study sites with partners to discuss forest values, objectives, and management actions.
- Case Studies: Develop detailed case studies to illustrate the complexity of values, objectives, threats, actions, and monitoring at specific locations. At each site, potential targets and methods for monitoring were described, which could track progress against the objectives.
- Current condition: Discuss the current values and condition of the forest based on partner input.
- Engagement: Sharing back the information gathered through the processes with all partners to guide the future joint management of the forest.
What’s next
The First Nations and government agency partners are developing a co-management plan based on their shared vision. It will guide the future of the Wombat Forest where people are the driving force in its recovery.
Publications
- The future of the Wombat Forest the aspirations of co-managers fact sheet (PDF, 5.4 MB)
- Farmilo, B., Batpurev, K., Moore, J. and Sinclair, S. (2024). Partner aspirations for a healthy Wombat Forest: An exploration of manager values and objectives. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 381. Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Heidelberg, Victoria.
For more information about this project contact Brad Farmilo, brad.farmilo@deeca.vic.gov.au or Steve Sinclair, steve.sinclair@deeca.vic.gov.au
Page last updated: 17/02/25