It was all hands on deck at the Seven Creeks Estate bush reserve in Kialla on Sunday.
More accurately, it was all hands in the soil.
A total of 237 community members were there to participate in National Tree Day, as facilitated by Greater Shepparton City Council and RiverConnect.
Between them, 1613 indigenous plants were put into the ground.
From the Hindu community to the Guides and Scouts, there were plenty of people and community groups attending and having a go at planting a native, according to council environment officer Kylie Hoskin.
“There was a lot of the community involved,” she said.
“We also had the Shepparton Mooroopna Urban Landcare group volunteers helping the community put out the plants and guards.
“There was a coffee van and a free barbecue from the Shepparton Lions Club and free indigenous plant giveaways for people if they wanted to plant some in their own gardens.”
The day looked slightly different this year, with last year’s flooding having taken out some of the native plants around the bush reserve.
However, the focus, as always, was about increasing biodiversity, Mrs Hoskin said.
“The plants that had died from the floods we did some recovery for, but they were mostly new plantings complimenting the patches of indigenous plants already established there,” she said.
“Post colonisation, there was little native vegetation left in this council area.
“Doing this increases our biodiversity, increases homes for wildlife and takes carbon out of the atmosphere, and helps people with their wellbeing and mental health by getting outside and connecting communities with each other.”
National Tree Day was incorporated into the One Tree Per Child program that council runs within the municipality.
It’s a global initiative, with council aiming to plant a tree for every child in Greater Shepparton under the age of 18.
Council’s objective is to plant 25,000 plants each year.
Since the program began in 2017, Greater Shepparton residents have planted more than 100,000 trees.
In addition to this event, council collaborated with the Rotary Club of Mooroopna to distribute indigenous plants to Year 5 and 6 students at several Greater Shepparton primary schools to take home and plant.