More Trees for a Cooler, Greener West video
[Acknowledgement of country]
[On-screen text: Leah Wheatley, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action]
Leah Wheatley: The more trees for a cooler greener West program is planting 500,000 trees in suburbs in Melbourne's west.
They're gonna be planted in parks and reserves next to footpaths and in schools, and create cool and shady places for people to enjoy.
[On-screen text: Andrew Fox, Hobsons Bay City Council]
Andrew Fox: The site, before we prepped, it was basically up to my waist in a Chilean needle grass. And, all that would really happen is that it would just be mowed from time to time.
We're at Cherry Lake today, and this is one of the sites that was planted out as part of the more trees for a cooler greener West program. Not only will the plantings improve the biodiversity values of the area, but it will also help improve the mental health of the community as well.
[On-screen text: Gerard Morel. Melbourne Water]
Gerard Morel: At Cherry Lake our primary responsibility is managing for drainage. It's a stormwater retarding basin, but it also has some areas of beautiful remnant vegetation around it and some big areas which are very neglected and weedy, which we're hoping to transform back into indigenous Australia Bush.
For us, the cooler greener west program was a massive opportunity to take the site forward and to replace big areas of weedy Chilean needle grass with a woodland, which then will follow up with planting the understory to give it diversity.
[On-screen text: Silkom Powell, Environment Education Victoria]
Silkom Powell: We're planting 3000 trees over 36 schools in Melbourne's west, and we're really excited about the tangible nature of tree planting and what that can offer as a learning resource, for students, not just in the present, but also into the future.
[On-screen text: Adrian Gray, Brimbank City Council]
Adrian Gray: This funding has enabled us to continue planting massive amounts of trees in some of our park areas is a really good cooperative way for multi-tiers of government to create Melbourne as a cool green city.
Leah Wheatley: One of the things I love about this program and working with the partners is getting out and planting trees and meeting all the community members who are really grateful for all of the extra trees that we're putting in the ground and that we're caring for the environment.
[On-screen text: 500,000 trees are being planted in Melbourne's western suburbs, providing more shade and future green spaces while driving down pollution.
More Trees for a Cooler, Greener West is made possible through collaboration between Victorian Government, local councils, Traditional Owner corporations, public land managers, Zoos Victoria, Victoria University, local environmental groups and schools.
Visit environment.vic.gov.au/more-trees]
[Victorian Government logo]
Page last updated: 25/05/26