The past, the present, and the way forward

Maroondah’s natural environment continues to change over time. Some of the more rapid and substantial changes have occurred since European settlement.

Prior to European settlement Maroondah would have been blanketed by a variety of different vegetation communities supporting a wide range of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms. The nature of the different communities was influenced by many things including the underlying geology and soils, the hydrology and the climate and have been classified into different Ecological vegetation Classes (EVCs).

The composition of these communities would have also been influenced by the First Peoples of Maroondah, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, who used fire to manipulate the availability of important resources, and hunted animals and harvested plants for food, medicine and materials for implements, dwellings, art and more.

The practices introduced by the European settlers to provide such resources were markedly different. Early on, the felling of trees for firewood and timber, the clearing of vegetation to plant introduced crops, the introduction of hooved animals to graze on the grasses and other ground layer plants and eventually introduced pasture grasses, saw much of the pre-settlement vegetation removed or significantly altered. The introduction of new species that hadn’t evolved within the pre-existing communities disrupted the balance and resulted in the loss of many of the species that once occurred here.

As populations grew and settlements expanded, the townships of Ringwood and Croydon emerged and continued to develop into the largely urbanised landscape we now know as Maroondah.

Despite these substantial changes to the Maroondah landscape, patches of the pre-settlement vegetation still persist today, and support much of what remains of Maroondah’s indigenous biodiversity. An organism is considered to be indigenous to Maroondah if it was believed to have been present here prior to European settlement, and it is the remnant communities they form today that best represent Maroondah’s natural biodiversity.

More nature throughout Maroondah

More nature throughout Maroondah is one of the three outcomes in The Maroondah Vegetation Strategy 2020-2030.

'More vegetation, in the form of a well-connected network of indigenous trees, shrubs and understorey plants providing a wide range of habitat elements such as the food, shelter, and opportunities to move through the landscape that indigenous flora and fauna in Maroondah need to flourish, and simultaneously create more opportunities for people to encounter and connect with nature close to where they live, work and play.'

For more information see Maroondah Vegetation Strategy 2020-2030.

Further information

For more information please email nature@maroondah.vic.gov.au.