Green canopy significantly increased for Penrith

Penrith City Council continues to significantly increase its green canopy with an additional 10,000 plants in Kingswood and North St Marys as part of Greening Australia’s Nature in Cities tree planting program.

Penrith City Council partnered with Amazon Australia and Greening Australia to plant over 10,000 native trees, shrubs, grasses and wildflowers in the Penrith Local Government Area (LGA) over the last two years, with the planting project coming to an end in early 2024.

Many of the seeds were supplied by Greening Australia and propagated in-house in Council’s Nursery, with numerous plants over the last 20 months growing to reach over two metres tall.

Penrith Mayor Todd Carney praised the project and said that these plants will benefit the community and future generations by providing even more green cover to keep the City cool.

Mayor Carney advised “Planting 10,000 plants over two years is no small feat, and I’m proud that Penrith continues to increase green cover across the City with great projects like this one.

“Millen Street Reserve in Kingswood was one of the reserves we planted at for this project, which used to be a completely mown reserve with minimal biodiversity. Now with 5,000 plants growing, it has created an urban ecosystem.

“We also planted at Kurrajong Road Reserve in St Marys, which used to be a mown reserve with some larger trees. With the introduction of 5,000 plants consisting of 46 different native species of tree, shrub and groundcover, this reserve’s native vegetation footprint has extended and created additional critical habitat for our native animals.

Greening Australia’s Evan Freame, who led on-ground delivery of the plantings and maintained them for the past 20 months, commended the project for its success.

Freame added “Being right in the middle of residential areas, there’s a lot of demand on these green spaces. We had such a productive collaboration with Council to land on planting designs that not only bring biodiversity back to these two reserves, but are also easy to maintain, look good, and consider the many uses of these spaces.

“The aim of our Nature in Cities program is to work with all kinds of partners to establish biodiverse, climate-resilient networks of gardens, parks, schools and waterways for people and nature. These plantings at the reserves help meet that aim: as they grow, they’ll create canopy and cooler places for people, and become important ‘stepping stones’ for local wildlife to move between waterways and other areas of bushland too.”

Amazon Australia Community Impact Lead Charlotte Richardson said the organisation was proud to support ongoing work by organisations like Penrith Council and Greening Australia to increase canopy cover and biodiversity in the city. 

Richardson enthused “It’s fantastic to see the impact that can be made in a relatively short amount of time. We’re proud to support planting projects like these in the communities where we live and work, helping grow more sustainable cities for future generations.

Penrith Council’s Bushcare team hosts a variety of tree planting and weed removal events throughout the year as part of their Bushcare program’s conservation efforts.

More information at penrith.city/events 

Image top: (from left) Penrith City Council Bushland Management Coordinator Justine Vella, Greening Australia Program Specialist Evan Freame, Penrith Mayor Todd Carney, Amazon Australia Manager of Public Policy Kylie von Muenster, and Greening Australia Operations Manager Chris Macris. Credit: Penrith City Council; image above: Trees planted at Millen Street Reserve in Kingswood.