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What CVA Project Officers Achieved Across Australia in March 2026

March was a big month for CVA. Across six states, our Project Officers and their volunteer teams built bee hotels, collected cane toads, restored flood-damaged wetlands, ran clean-ups, surveyed birds, and moved forward dozens of habitat restoration projects.

Here is what happened in each state.

Queensland: Bee Hotels, Flood Recovery, and Record-Breaking Toad Busting

In Gladstone, International Women’s Day brought the team together with the Australian Native Bee Association to build bee hotels, followed by morning tea at the CWA Hall. The Fitzroy River Restoration project continued post-flood recovery work, dispersing over 450 mangrove seeds and 260 native seed bombs after two recent flooding events. Plants are establishing well.

The standout event was a night-time cane toad collection at Tondoon Botanical Gardens. Over 150 scouts from the Port Curtis Region joined CVA staff to collect 789 toads weighing 89 kg in one session, coming close to CVA’s record of 1,000 toads in 60 minutes. Toads were cooled and frozen humanely following best practice guidelines.

In Mackay, CVA kicked off its Revive project with a visit to Cape Hillsborough National Park alongside adult students from Ideal Placements. The group conducted a beach clean and flora education workshop, collecting seven bags of mostly plastic materials. For Clean Up Australia Day, St Patrick’s College Mackay joined the team at Northwall Beach, collecting significant beach debris that students will survey in Term 2, contributing data to the CSIRO.

Taylor Oxford, Environmental Committee Chair at St Patrick’s College, summed it up: “Marine debris and plastic consumption and pollution are an ever-growing issue that my generation should be focused on tackling locally to make a difference globally.”

New South Wales: Privet Removal, Possum Dreys, and Cultural Weaving

Volunteers tackled large privet infestations along the Georges River as part of the City Safari project, clearing invasive plants to restore habitat connectivity for koalas. The PricewaterhouseCoopers team joined on site. At Sir Joseph Banks Park, the team returned for maintenance weeding in last year’s planting area. Plantings are establishing strongly and ringtail possum dreys are showing signs of active use. Wildlife sightings this month included a net-casting spider, a Tawny Frogmouth, an Eastern Water Dragon, and a praying mantis.

On 18 March, volunteers gathered at Hawthorne Reserve to mark International Women’s Day. Aunty Karleen, who has been sharing her knowledge of natural fibres and cultural weaving practices for over 30 years, led a workshop where participants crafted their own woven pieces.

In the Northern Rivers, weed control continued at Duranbah and Coraki, with native vegetation responding well. At Coraki, maintaining open movement corridors for koalas remains a priority. A site at Broken Head has been prepared for a Glossy Black-Cockatoo planting in April, and in partnership with Brunswick Valley Landcare, the team prepared a new site at Mullumbimby for May planting with a specialist soil mix.

Tasmania: Kelp Baskets, Beach Clean-Ups, and Marram Grass Removal

Three events kept Hobart volunteers busy. The month kicked off at Kingston Beach with a kelp basket-making session led by SETAC to celebrate International Women’s Day, sitting alongside the piramina/Browns River and working with natural materials.

The following week, the team returned to Kingston Beach to pull out marram grass in preparation for the local Coast Care group’s winter planting. The month wrapped with nine volunteers joining a weeding and maintenance session at the old National Tree Day site in Claremont, with a special welcome to the FedEx team joining for the first time.

South Australia: Wetland Clean-Ups, Weaving Workshops, and Dune Restoration

Volunteers showed up consistently for Magazine Creek and Barker Inlet wetland sites, with litter collection, weeding, and final watering sessions of the season. Rain arrived just in time and seedlings at both sites are thriving.

For International Women’s Day, the group started by collecting 35 kg of litter from the Barker Inlet Wetlands edge, then wound down with a weaving workshop led by Rosie using upcycled fabric, yarn, and rope scraps.

A small team joined the Taperoo Dunes Group for their weekly bush care session, tackling dense ice-plant weeds and freeing up space for native plants establishing in the dunes.

The team returned to the Urban Shade Forest site at River Drive in Athelstone to remove tree guards from plants that no longer need them. Less than a year since these seedlings went in, the site is already transforming.

March finished with a bang. Thirty-six young volunteers joined CVA and CoExist Australia for a major clean-up at Magazine Creek Wetlands, removing 115 kg of rubbish. A small group stayed on for birdwatching, spotting an Australian Hobby, White-winged Fairy-wrens, and Wedge-tailed Eagles overhead.

Victoria: Mermaids, Ocean Litter, and Hundreds of Families

Victoria had something different. On 1 March, CVA teamed up with Mertopia, Sea Shepherd, and Port Phillip Eco Centre for a Clean Up Australia Day event at Pier Lagoon in Port Melbourne designed specifically for children and their families. Hundreds of families turned up.

Mertopia, a group who perform live shows as mermaids, brought unique energy to the event. CVA ran an information booth and activity centre, with kids collecting litter from the beach and sticking each piece onto an octopus mural. Watching the mural fill up with what had come from a beach that looked clean at first glance was sobering.

Activities included litter bingo, a “where does it come from?” station, and information on how long different types of rubbish take to break down. The kids were genuinely motivated to find every last fragment they could.

Western Australia: Kayak Clean-Ups, Bird Surveys, and 9,000 m² of Wetland Habitat Improved

March was Perth’s biggest month of 2026 so far. Forty-nine volunteers across four events, over 400 families at a community open day, and 9,000 m² of wetland habitat improved.

The month kicked off with kayaks launched from Osprey Waters Foreshore Reserve for a guided paddle along the Peel-Harvey Estuary with Rivergods. The team removed 502 items of litter from the foreshore.

On 3 March, volunteers combined clean-up action with citizen science at Bibra Lake Reserve, joining a BirdLife Australia expert for a wetland bird survey. The team recorded 24 species and 353 individual birds. Across both Clean Up Australia Day events, volunteers removed a total of 11.5 kg of litter.

For International Women’s Day on 6 March, teams from Kuehne+Nagel and Alinta Energy joined community members for invasive weed removal at Bibra Lake, followed by an inspiring speaker panel featuring Professor Jessica Meeuwig (Director, UWA Marine Futures Lab), Dr Harriet Mills (Program Leader, Perth Zoo Science), and Dr Kit Prendergast (native bee scientist).

On 13 March, the FedEx team joined an intensive day of habitat rehabilitation at Forrestdale Lake. The site is dry ahead of winter rains, but targeted watering and weed maintenance are keeping young seedlings going.

Between the IWD event and Forrestdale, corporate partners helped improve wetland condition across 9,000 m² in March. CVA also engaged with over 400 attendees at the Wetlands Centre Community Open Day, where families made seed bombs to build back nature in their own backyards.

What It Adds Up To

March was a reminder that conservation happens through sustained effort, local knowledge, and people showing up. Project Officers across six states coordinated dozens of events, engaged hundreds of volunteers, planted thousands of seedlings, removed hundreds of kilograms of litter and weeds, and advanced habitat restoration projects that will take years to fully mature.

The work continues in April.

Join a volunteering event right here: https://volunteerportal.cva.org.au/