Blairgowrie Friends of Mornington Peninsula National Park is a group of local environmental volunteers who focus on improving the health of the MornPen National Park. We work closely with our local Parks Victoria rangers.

Blairgowrie Friends have obtained a $22,000 Melbourne Water Landcare grant to improve the environmental health and biodiversity of the Koonya Grassy Bowl in the National Park, at the Koonya Ocean Beach end of Hughes Road, Blairgowrie. The project is expected to take 3 years to complete.

The Koonya Bowl restoration project is supported and supervised by Parks Victoria and auspiced by Victorian Landcare. Work has commenced on weeding sections of the Bowl in order to create space for native grasses, shrubs and trees. In autumn 2024 Blairgowrie Friends will spread locally-sourced seeds of native grasses and plants to improve the habitat for native animals and birds, some of which are rare or threatened species.

Blairgowrie Friends hope that all of the local residents and visitors to the Koonya Bowl region of the National Park will benefit from our work and that local people can get involved with us in our activities to protect the environment. An example is Rosebud Secondary College, whose students are participating in the project as part of their curriculum. RSC has also received a Victorian Landcare Grant for this project.

Blairgowrie Friends are keen to recruit more volunteers to assist, so if you, or anyone you know, is interested to join with us, we would like to hear from you.

Our Facebook page is titled “Blairgowrie Friends of Mornington Peninsula National Park”. You can find us at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087339472443

Or you can email us at blairgowrieMPNPvolunteers@gmail.com

Our next working bee (meet at Koonya Ocean Beach lower carpark) is Saturday 9 December 2023 at 9:30am