When 25,000 trees fell during the June 2021 storm event, arborist David Ferrier was dismayed to see many of them leaving the hills or rotting on the ground.
18 months later, Mr Ferrier has worked to save and repurpose salvaged materials into community projects, school playspaces and works of art.
“Welcome to the new home of Treasuring Our Trees. We spent approximately 12 months trying to find our factory showroom and also a processing storage site,” Mr Ferrier told the Star Mail on Thursday 29 November.
“Where we are today is the factory showroom that we’re setting up as an education hub in Lilydale.”
The industrial site —a gym in a former life — now holds gigantic logs of significant ecological and cultural value, including part of an English oak tree that once stood at the centre of Olinda, a mountain ash tree used as a messaging board during the storms in Kalorama and a shining gum log from a bushfire zone in Gippsland, alongside works of art of salvaged materials and works in progress for community projects.
Mr Ferrier said he has worked tirelessly to build relationships with government and community partners to develop Treasuring our Trees into what it is today.
“What we wanted to do is bring a little bit of the outside in and connection to nature, that’s what the program is all about,” he said.
“It’s about respecting, connecting, showcasing and spreading awareness about sustainability.”
At the Treasuring Our Trees official program launch on Saturday 3 December, the public saw cabinets made from trees felled in the storm event which will be donated to local schools, a performance by didgeridoo player Ash Dargan and Emma Jennings’ painting of Kalorama CFA captain Bill Robinson atop a canvas of salvaged material.
Mr Ferrier said the launch was “really a celebration.”
“It was quite emotional for a lot of people,” he said.
“Our program was part of the healing process. I unashamedly shed a few tears myself.”
Mr Ferrier is proud of the long list of relationships he has developed over the last 18 months, many of which were also on display at the event. Yarra Ranges and Cardinia Council, Rotary Clubs throughout the hills, Level Crossing Removal Project, Melbourne Water and local schools that were affected by the storms are a few of the organisations that have contributed to Treasuring Our Trees in different ways, ranging from monetary contributions, community support or just offering a home to the projects it is developing.
When Treasuring Our Trees became a registered charity, it also needed a secretary for its board. One of those relationships yielded one.
Alan Lunghusen said he connected with Mr Ferrier when he was a part of the Rotary clubs which raised over $100,000 to give to organisations in the Dandenong Ranges that were affected by the storms.
“I got volunteered to be the project manager and when we got the money together and had to find people to donate it to, we gave money to various groups like the CFA, the primary school in Kallista, Habitat for Humanity and Treasuring Our Trees of course,” Mr Lunghusen said.
“That’s how I got to know Treasuring Our Trees and a few weeks after we handed the money over, they asked me to come onto the board and I ended up as secretary.”
Mr Ferrier said he is “collaborating with a lot of good folk.”
“My main role is actually in building partnerships to try to find the right people for the right projects, whether it be a school project or community project,” he said.
“The vision was always this big, if not bigger. The plan was always to try to build 20 primary school projects and at least 20 community projects.”
Other projects are on the horizon, but for the moment Mr Ferrier can stop to appreciate 18 months of hard work.
“When we start on Saturday, we’re going to have some of the designs of our first three primary school projects,” he said.
Future projects will include more exhibitions at the showroom, sustainable gardens, indoor furniture for local schools, sports equipment, imaginative play spaces, adventure trails, bush cubby houses, outdoor teaching circles, erosion control and more.
“We are really excited to be at this point,” Mr Ferrier said.
“But we feel like we’ve run a marathon just to get to the starting line.”
The Treasuring Our Trees showroom is located at 16 Brock Drive, Lilydale. Find out more about future projects at treasuringourtrees.org.
