Tuesday, 26 August, 2025
CFA volunteers take on new role
1200 students explore career paths
Cockatoo mums create literacy podcast
Real estate liftout inside
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A Star News Group Publication
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Sprung! By Tanya Steele Spring has sprung, and the vibrant yellow colours of the season are peeping through trees and across the hills. The distinctive golden daffodil, a firm favourite in the horticultural world, is the permanent subject of great care at a longstanding farm in the Yarra Ranges. Cross-breeding and selecting varieties that they hope will hold up to the Australian climate in years to come, Will and Christine Ashburner are in full swing tending their daffodil farm Hancocks on a little corner in Menzies Creek. With records going back over a hundred years, Will said they have noticed the flowering time trending earlier in the last few seasons. “They’re definitely getting earlier,” he said. A highly experienced horticulturist, Will has been working the farm with Christine, who worked in botany at Monash University, for over 20 years. Read more on Page 10
Will and Christine have been working the land at Hancocks in Menzies Creek for 25 years. (Ljubica Vrankovic)
Bushfire resilience Resilience to bushfires comes in all shapes and forms. It’s not only embedded in the practices of preparedness but in the learnings from recovery and healing. The Yarra Ranges knows the risks when it comes to bushfires, with many parts of the shire impacted by Ash Wednesday and having been on the cusp of the Black Saturday fires. Only this year was Montrose the site of a late-
season bushfire that caused extensive damage to a key environmental reserve. Despite this, every day, researchers, community members, Indigenous leaders, and environmental agencies work to reduce harm, find solutions and build resilience, not only in the land but in communities. The Star Mail this week kicks off a project called Fire Resilient Communities - an explora-
tion of the initiatives being undertaken across the Yarra Valley, Dandenong Ranges and urban parts of the shire to protect from and predict the risk of bushfires. Funded through the Walkley Solutions Journalism Fund, this project will produce a series of six articles, each looking at the different aspects of fire preparedness and resilience. To begin, this edition features a two-page
spread on the role of controlled burns, both planned and cultural, among the initiatives that coincide with pre-summer burning. From there, articles will look at the grassroots impact of community groups, the role of social recovery, environmental regeneration and predictions for the upcoming fire season. See pages 8 and 9
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