Backyard Biodiversity
Encouraging wildlife-friendly gardening in urban Ballarat
Gardens for Wildlife Ballarat is delivering a new program in 2025-26 for the local community, funded by the City of Ballarat through the Ballarat Community Education for Sustainability and Environment project. Gardens for Wildlife Ballarat is a community-based gardening program that provides advice and ideas to those interested in making more wildlife friendly spaces in urban gardens.
The program will be delivered in collaboration with other local groups, including Ballarat East Neighbourhood House which is the delivery partner, supporting the program through promotion and administration.
There are a range of Backyard Biodiversity activities on offer, including:
- Spring Walking Tour: Woowookarung Forest (Complete)
- Spring Walking Tour: Creswick Forest (Complete)
- Workshop: Propagation and Nursery Tour (Complete)
- Presentation: Gardening for Wildlife (Complete)
- Presentation: Indigenous Plants for Ballarat Gardens (Saturday 21 March)
- Workshop: Nestboxes, bee hotels and bird baths (Saturday 18 April)
- Autumn Walking Tour: North Gardens Reserve
- Workshop: Planning a Garden for Wildlife
- Workshop: Planning a Nature Strip/Pollinator garden
- Workshop: Propagation and Nursery Tour
- Planting: Creating a garden for wildlife in a public space
- Planting: Creating a Nature Strip/Pollinator garden in a public space
Activity 5: Local Native Plants for Ballarat Gardens
Get to know our flowering neighbours at this presentation that introduces you to some of the beautiful small trees, shrubs and groundcovers that grow naturally in the forests and grasslands around Ballarat. We’ll focus on the plants that look great and grow well in gardens, learning how to recognise them, how to grow and care for them, and how to use them in your garden to show them off at their best. As well as looking fabulous, local natives bring local wildlife into your garden by offering food, shelter and habitat for butterflies, native bees, birds and other pollinators.
Theatre, Ground Floor, Barkly Square, Ballarat East (25-39 Barkly Street, Ballarat East)
Date: Saturday 21 March
Time: 10.30 am - 12.00 noon
Venue Access: Best parking is on Barkly Street opposite the Ballarat Fire Station or in the Barkly Square carpark off Princes Street (requiring a short uphill walk). For more information on accessing Barkly Square, see here for further information and a link to an accessibility map.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided and toilet facilities are available.
Bookings are essential as places are limited. Please cancel your ticket/s if you can no longer attend so that we can make your place available to others.
If you have access requirements, special dietary requirements or would like us to make reasonable adjustments to make your experience more positive, please contact the Ballarat East Neighbourhood House team.
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Activity 6: Become a Bush Architect - Build a Wildlife Hotel
Simple additions to your garden can make a world of difference for local wildlife. In this hands-on workshop we’ll explore the vital role that nestboxes can play in enhancing biodiversity, how to choose a design suitable to your local wildlife, where to hang it, how to maintain it and how to check who’s been visiting.
Under guidance and in small teams, you’ll build a Wildlife Hotel suitable for a variety of users from microbats, to pardalotes to possums and birds. This is a new design, so the built boxes will be donated to a local wildlife group to trial and gather data on their effectiveness.
By participating in this workshop, you’ll gather the skills and confidence to build any nestbox and will be provided with plans for more traditional boxes to take home for whatever wild creatures visit your garden.
Ballarat Community Men’s Shed, Barkly Square, Ballarat East (25-39 Barkly Street, Ballarat East)
Date: Saturday 18 April
Time: 10.00 am - 12.00 noon
Wear sturdy fully enclosed shoes and old clothes. Bring your own battery drill if possible.
Venue Access: Barkly Square is at 25-39 Barkly Street, Ballarat East (opposite Ballarat East Fire Station). The Community Men’s Shed is in an unnamed lane on the uphill (north-east) side of the complex. Best parking is on Barkly Street opposite the Ballarat Fire Station or in the Barkly Square carpark off Princes Street (requiring a short uphill walk). For more information on accessing Barkly Square, see here for further information and a link to an accessibility map.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided and toilet facilities are available.
Bookings are essential as places are limited. Please cancel your ticket/s if you can no longer attend so that we can make your place available to others.
If you have access requirements, special dietary requirements or would like us to make reasonable adjustments to make your experience more positive, please contact the Ballarat East Neighbourhood House team.
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About Gardens for Wildlife Ballarat
Gardens for Wildlife Ballarat is a community-based gardening program that provides advice and ideas to those interested in making more wildlife friendly spaces in urban gardens.
Whether you have a big backyard, a tiny courtyard, a community garden, a school veggie patch, or pot plants on your balcony, everyone can help contribute to the survival of wildlife by providing suitable places (habitat) for birds, insects, frogs, lizards and other animals.
By participating in the program and becoming engaged in wildlife gardening, you too are a volunteer helping our community to foster local nature. Private landholders can play a critical role in creating a healthy and thriving environment in urban and peri-urban areas.
Connecting to nature in our gardens is also good for our health!
By creating a garden that is wildlife-friendly we can:
- Help conserve local plants and animals by planting more habitat
- Have time to enjoy our gardens by being less tidy, reducing maintenance time and costs
- Reduce water use and evaporation through mulching and use of local native plant species which are better able to tolerate drought conditions
- Have native birds and insects in our gardens providing natural pest control and promoting increased pollination for better fruit/seed set
- Enjoy close encounters with native animals in our gardens and encourage children to appreciate nature up close
Past Events
Activity 4: Wildlife by Design: Creating a Garden That Gives Back
Want a garden that buzzes with life, sings with birdsong, and supports the creatures that call your backyard home? Join us for an inspiring presentation on how to choose the right plants and structure your garden to become a thriving habitat for wildlife.
Learn how native plants, layered vegetation, and thoughtful design can transform any outdoor space into a sanctuary for birds, insects, reptiles, and more. We’ll cover:
- Which plants attract pollinators, seed-eaters, and shelter-seekers
- How to use logs, rocks, and water features to support diverse species
- The importance of canopy, understory, and ground cover in habitat creation
Whether you have a sprawling yard or a modest balcony, you’ll leave with practical ideas and ecological insights to make your garden a haven for biodiversity.
Theatre, Ground Floor, Barkly Square, Ballarat East (25-39 Barkly Street, Ballarat East)
Date: Saturday 28 February
Time: 10.30 am - 12.00 noon
Best parking is on Barkly Street opposite the Ballarat Fire Station or in the Barkly Square carpark off Princes Street (requiring a short uphill walk). For more information on accessing Barkly Square, see here for further information and a link to an accessibility map.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided and toilet facilities are available.
Bookings are essential as places are limited. Please cancel your ticket/s if you can no longer attend so that we can make your place available to others.
If you have access requirements, special dietary requirements or would like us to make reasonable adjustments to make your experience more positive, please contact the Ballarat East Neighbourhood House team.
Activity 3: Propagation Workshop and Nursery Tour
Let’s learn how to grow our own local native plants at this hands-dirty workshop. If you’ve got plants you love already, why not make more to pop into other spaces in your garden or share with neighbours and friends? It’s rewarding and simple. We’ll take cuttings, sow seed and prick out several different species. Take a guided tour of the Nursery to find out how 30,000 indigenous plants are nurtured and readied for planting in gardens, parks and reserves around Ballarat and select a few to take home for your own garden.
City of Ballarat Indigenous Plant Nursery
Date: Wednesday 18 February
Time: 11.00am - 12.30pm
BOOKED OUT
Bookings are essential as places are limited. Please cancel your ticket/s if you can no longer attend so that we can make your place available to others.
Activity 2: Come for a walk ….. in Creswick Forest
REGISTER BELOW - Registrations essential as places are limited.
Let’s explore a small patch of local bushland on this free family-friendly guided stroll along Slaty Creek and surrounding forest. Along the way we’ll look for wildflowers, introduce you to the sights and sounds of local birds, familiarise you with the trees and shrubs that make up their habitat and start you thinking about the benefits of growing local flora to create a wildlife haven in your own patch.
Creswick Forest, Slaty Creek Picnic Ground 1
Date: Sunday 30 November
First Walk: 2.00 pm - 3.15 pm (BOOKED OUT)
Second Walk: 3.30 pm - 4.45 pm
2.00pm Walk: Transport is available from Barkly Square, departing at 1.15pm and returning at approximately 4.00pm. Alternatively, meet G4WB outside Creswick Town Hall by 1.45pm and follow in your own vehicle.
3.30pm Walk: There is no transport offered for the 3.30pm walk. Please make your way to Slaty Creek Picnic/Campground 1 by 3.20pm or meet G4WB outside Creswick Town Hall by 3.15pm and follow in your own vehicle.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided and there are basic toilet facilities.
Total return walking distance is less than 2 km. The track is rough in places so wear sturdy shoes, long trousers and sleeves, hat and sunscreen and bring a water bottle.
Bookings are essential as places are limited. Please cancel your ticket/s if you can no longer attend so that we can make your place available to others.
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Activity 1: Come for a walk ….. in Woowookarung
Let’s discover a small part of Woowookarung forest and its cultural heritage on this free guided stroll. Along the way we’ll look for wildflowers, introduce you to the sights and sounds of local birds, learn about traditional Wadawurrung relationships with forest plants and animals and start you thinking about the benefits of growing local flora to create a wildlife haven in your own patch.
Woowookarung, Dementia-friendly Forest and Sensory Trail
Date: Monday 27 October
Time 10.00 am - 12.15 pm
Transport is available from Barkly Square, departing at 10.00 am and returning at approximately 12.15pm. This will need to be booked through the Ballarat East Neighbourhood House. Alternatively, please meet us at the trail head in Katy Ryans Road by 10.15 am.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided but there are no toilet facilities.
Total return walking distance is approximately 2.5 km on a paved gentle gradient suitable for prams and wheelchairs. Please wear sturdy shoes, long trousers, hat and sunscreen and bring a water bottle.
Bookings are essential as places are limited. Please cancel your ticket/s if you can no longer attend so that we can make your place available to others.
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