Phillip Island Significant Trees and Vegetation Register

Overview and Nomination Form Guide

The Phillip Island Significant Trees and Vegetation Register is being developed by the Phillip Island Conservation Society and the Bass Coast Branch of the National Trust, in consultation with the community and Bass Coast Shire Council. It aims to take stock of our locally significant trees and vegetation. By raising awareness of their value, the register will provide the community with a proven tool for advocating for better management and protection of these natural assets.

The National Trust maintains a national register of trees of regional, state, national and international significance. Trees in the Phillip Island register that are assessed to be potentially of regional or higher significance may subsequently be nominated to the National Trust register.

The Phillip Island register will list individual trees, groups of trees and areas of vegetation on Phillip Island and Churchill Island that are assessed to have local or higher significance based on criteria drawn from the National Trust register. These criteria have been tailored to suit local needs in consultation with Bass Coast Shire Council and the community, including via a public forum in October 2019.

Nominations to the Phillip Island register will be accepted up until 31 January 2020, before being assessed for significance by a qualified community panel. The panel includes members with backgrounds in arboriculture, horticulture, forestry, botany, ecology, GIS and mapping, art, architecture and design, and conservation.

The completed register will be presented to Bass Coast Shire Council in March 2020 for potential adoption and use as a template for wider application across the shire. Council may then choose to implement appropriate planning and local law controls to better protect listed trees and vegetation within its jurisdiction. Council may also choose to seek further nominations to the register in future.

Trees and vegetation nominated for inclusion on the register may be located on public land and, with the written consent of the owner, private land. Public land includes land both within and outside council jurisdiction, e.g. VicRoads roadsides and Phillip Island Nature Parks land. The aim is to take stock of our significant trees and vegetation, wherever they are, so that we can better manage and protect them.

Nomination form guide

There are two nomination forms—one for trees and one for areas of vegetation. Please use the nomination form best suited to your needs. If you wish to nominate an area of vegetation as well as a significant tree within, please submit both forms.

If a nomination is on private land, the written consent of the private landowner must be provided on the form.

Submit completed forms to PICS (PO Box 548, Cowes Vic 3922 or phillipislandconservation@gmail.com) or Bass Coast Shire Council Cowes Customer Service Centre by 31 January 2020.

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