Danks Street & Bothwell Street Biolinks

Reconnecting corridors for urban birds, bugs, bees and bats.

Both the Danks Street and Bothwell Street Biolink projects are responses to developments in our understanding of ecology in the urban setting over the past decade. These initiatives aim to ensure that humans can coexist with richer biodiversity in urban areas, with the belief that enhancing local ecologies also benefits human health. Both designs replace lawn median strips incorporating a diverse range of plants, to support urban biodiversity and connectivity, reintroducing habitats for native insects and animals, while providing spaces for people to stroll and rest.

The Danks Street project leverages the previous work and enthusiasm of local citizen scientists who monitor bird life in the area. They identified this stretch as a crucial corridor between patches, aiming to restore connectivity for insect, bird, and microbat species. Monitoring and evaluation, including use of an infrared camera, will allow City of Port Phillip Council to assess the effectiveness of this approach to enriching urban ecologies in the coming years. Nesting boxes and stone bird baths offer habitat elements often missing within the city. We also had the opportunity for an ecological desktop review of the planting scheme by Practical Ecology, which further diversified and localised the chosen species.

The Bothwell Street project includes several pilot sites for The University of Melbourne’s Woody Meadow Project. Woody Meadows are naturalistic plantings of native shrubs that improve the appearance and function of low-maintenance landscapes, showcasing a new way of managing native planting within an urban context. The Pollen team were excited to be connected to one of the Woody Meadow projects springing up around Melbourne. 

If you want to know more about this one, give us a call.