FAQs

There are many factors which influence the speed of growth of a new rainforest, but based on average growth conditions you can expect your rainforest to start to develop a canopy in 5 years. The basic milestones to keep in mind with rainforest establishment are:

• 0-1 year: The first year is focused on ensuring the plants survive and grow. By ensuring good weed control, protection from browsers, fertiliser, water, pest and disease control, survival and growth rates can be at their optimum.
• 1-5 years: With the right composition of fast-growing pioneers and early secondary species, canopy capture can be achieved within 5 years.
• 5-20 years: The pioneer species will start to give way to secondary and mature-phase species which provide the structure upon which rainforest diversity is based.
• 20 years onwards: When the appropriate structure of a highly diverse canopy has developed, diversity will start to increase – vines, epiphytes, palms, understory and groundcovers should be planned for and become part of the rainforest. 

Our resources don’t enable us to inspect or assist on all privately owned land in our region. To inquire if it’s possible to set up an inspection with our team, please email info@bigscrubrainforest.org with the following information about your property:

• Exact location
• Size of land available for regeneration
• Nature of existing vegetation
• Nature of soil

We endeavour to inspect as many sites as possible in the Big Scrub footprint but there are a number of factors which will impact on suitability of properties for restoring subtropical lowland rainforest.

You can also apply for grants from a range of sources:

• The NSW Government’s Local Land Services page.

• Landholders who qualify for the Land for Wildlife Scheme can apply for a Land for Wildlife Biodiversity Grants of $2000 over a year.

Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy uses professional bush regenerators from Envite Environment, Darren Bailey and Big Scrub Regeneration. Costs for regen on private land vary greatly according to the specific nature of the property. 

We only use professional bush regenerators in our work. We have community events throughout the year where tree plantings are sometimes conducted, open to all members of the public. Please subscribe to our email newsletter and follow us on social media to be notified of these opportunities.

The maps, images, data and reference material displayed on our website and in our publications are produced by us or used with the permission of their creators.

These resources may be used for research purposes with proper referencing. They can be found on our About Us page or our resources section.

To maintain consistency with the use of these resources, we cannot authorise their use in material made publicly available or publications produced for commercial gain. Instead please direct people to view these resources on our website or other publications, or use publicly available material, like the maps on the NSW Government’s SEED database.

Photography and video

We feature a range of talented local photographers and filmmakers across our website, as noted in the copyright labels attached to the imagery. If you wish to reproduce any of this work, please contact the owner of the material directly:

• Iain Stych: Instagram, Image Gallery 
• Jimmy Malecki
• David Warth