Some of Victoria’s most spectacular grasslands can be found along roadsides in the heart of the state’s western sheep region.

Known as the Volcanic Plains Grasslands, this endangered ecosystem once stretched from Melbourne to South Australia.

Ben Zeeman, senior biodiversity manager at the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority (CMA), says less than one per cent of these native grasslands remain today, clinging to country roadsides and small plots of land private farms.

Much of what remains is believed to have been accidentally saved by the Country Fire Authority (CFA).

Some wide roadsides, initially reserved for moving livestock, are burned most years by CFA as a method of preventing bushfires, Dr Zeeman says.

Dr Zeeman says regular cold burns keep kangaroo grass, the dominant species in grasslands, low and contained, giving other smaller plants space to establish.

The CFA unintentionally mimicked the burning that indigenous land managers had practiced for thousands of years, Dr. Zeeman says.

Despite this happy accident, many plants in these grasslands of western Victoria are at risk of extinction.

The Glenelg Hopkins CMA is working with traditional owners, Landcare groups and private landowners to protect and restore what remains.

“It gets in your blood.”

The little Derrinallum Billy Button is so rare that only one population has survived in the wild.

The Billy button is one of 17 endangered plants that the Glenelg Hopkins CMA is working to save.

By producing seeds and attempting to reintroduce these plants to road reserves and private farmland, they hope to restore grassland diversity and increase populations of these threatened plants.

Dr Zeeman says the project is challenging because these grassland plants do not have a persistent seed bank in the soil, as is the case in many other Australian ecosystems.

“(We are) considering bringing these plants back to these sites by planting seedlings and trying direct seeding experiments,” he says.

Locating these plants in the wild and then harvesting their seeds is a painstaking undertaking.

Establishing a seed production system for these native plants is another challenge.

At a nursery on his farm in Chatsworth, David Franklin is working in partnership with the Glenelg Hopkins CMA to produce large numbers of these plants for seed production.

Mr. Franklin spent decades figuring out how to grow these prairie plants.

“It becomes a bit of a challenge trying to overcome the secrets they all seem to hold,” he says.

Born into a local sheep-herding family, Mr Franklin says grasslands have a way of getting into the bloodstream.

“You just look at them and ask yourself, ‘How can we increase or improve and try to maintain what we have left?’

Jobs fall to few

Mr Franklin grew meadow plants for local Woorndoo Chatsworth Landcare group.

But working with such rare and active plants can be stressful.

Mr. Franklin worries about a storm or a rogue possum that will undo the slow progress.

Another concern, Franklin said, is finding enough people as passionate as he is to continue restoring prairies in the future.

Even CFA’s annual spending is unreliable.

Susan Bosch, local farmer and chair of the Woorndoo Chatsworth Landcare Group, says CFA burns are becoming less common.

Finding the next generation of volunteers is also a problem facing the Landcare group.

“One of the things we struggle with is finding new, younger members,” Ms. Bosch says.

But for Landcare members involved in roadside grassland restoration, the work brings unexpected joy, Ms. Bosch says.

“It makes you a little more positive about the state of things when you know you can’t have as huge an impact on what’s happening globally or across Australia,” she says.

“You know you can have a little impact on your patch.”