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Urban Shade Forest Ex-Tree-Vaganzas: Celebrating greener and cooler cities!

As our cities grow, so does the need for green spaces. Urban greenery doesn’t just make our neighbourhoods more beautiful – it helps cools our suburbs, supports biodiversity, improves air quality, and fosters healthy, more connected communities. That’s exactly what our Urban Shade Forest initiative is all about: planting trees today to create cooler, healthier, and more connected cities tomorrow!

Even on brisk winter mornings, where staying under the blankets might seem tempting, our dedicated staff and passionate volunteers have answered the call to join our community planting days. Over the past few months, 414 volunteers have planted 8,698 seedlings as part of our Urban Shade Forest project, with our newest seedlings now happily settling into their new homes.

One of the standouts of the planting season are our ex-tree-vaganzas! Living up to their name, these events go far beyond planting. People of all ages and backgrounds come together to get their hands dirty planting, while also enjoying a range of other hands-on activities, from wildlife shows to crafting homes for native bees and even taking home free native plants!

In just two action-packed days in South Australia and Western Australia we:

Planted 3,260 native seedlings

Welcomed 197 volunteers

Engaged with 10 community groups

Read on to discover what we got up to in each location!

Baldivis Children’s Forest – Baldivis, Western Australia

🌍 Noongar Boodja / Gnaala Karla Boodja (In Noongar language, Boodja means Country)

🗓️ Event held: July 5, 2025
👥 Volunteers: 64
🌱 Seedlings planted: 1,260

We kicked things off early at the Baldivis Children’s Forest, where 64 amazing volunteers came together for a day of planting, knowledge sharing, and creativity.

This incredible 20-hectare nature Reserve, nestled in the suburb of Baldivis, is home to an impressive variety of native wildlife – including Western grey kangaroos, boobook owls, native bats, and 25 different species of reptiles. This year, our aim was to plant over 3,000 native seedlings to boost canopy cover and biodiversity within the Reserve. We’re hopeful that this Forest will one day provide both food and habitat to these species, while also bringing even more greenery to this important green patch.

Our morning began with a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony led by Steven Jacobs, a Whadjuk maaman (the Noongar word for man), who shared the importance of caring for Country, while also speaking about his personal reflections on inequalities faced by First Nations people, which was especially moving as NAIDOC Week approached.

Families, friends and community groups also had the chance to get up close with native wildlife (including olive pythons, bobtail lizards, and frilled neck lizards, just to name a few) thanks to Critters Up Close, while the team from Eco Action helped our volunteers to decorate terracotta pots with nature inspired designs! These pots were filled with everlasting daisies, alongside a native seedling giveaway, to grow their own miniature forests at home.

We’re thankful to the Baldivis Children’s Forest team – the organisation who has cared for the site for the last 25 years – who were able to educate our volunteers about the history of the site, and to the JET Australia team in Perth, who came out in force to help us get our Forest planted.

But our work doesn’t end here! Over September and October, we’ll return to the site to water the seedlings and to get them ready to survive their first summer! Register to be part of our upcoming events in Baldivis here!

River Drive Reserve – Athelstone, South Australia

🌍 Kaurna Country
🗓️ Event held: July 27, 2025
👥 Volunteers: 133
🌱 Seedlings planted: 2,000

In the City of Campbelltown, we officially expanded our Urban Shade Forest project into South Australia, marking the occasion with an ex-tree-vaganza to remember! While Adelaide broke records for the wettest July in over 20 years and experienced close to 40mm of rain in the two days leading up to the event, our team was blessed with a break in the rain so the event could go ahead as planned!

The event at River Drive Reserve opened with a beautiful Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country by Uncle Ivan who reminded us of the importance of getting people of all ages involved in caring for Country and improving Country for the generations that follow us. We then heard from representatives of both CVA and Campbelltown City Council to mark this exciting new beginning in Adelaide.

Despite the soggy lead up to the event, South Australians showed up in full force! Eight community groups and 133 volunteers got their hands dirty, planting 2,000 new seedlings and helped to transform the local Reserve into a leafy urban haven.

Volunteers also had a blast building blue banded bee hotels and making native seed bombs with the crew from Habitat Connection Co., meeting native wildlife (like spotted pythons, a saltwater crocodile, and even a quokka!) with the dedicated crew from Animals Anonymous, and taking home a bunch of free native plants to continue greening their own balconies and backyards.

A very special thank you to the wide range of community groups who joined us on the day, including the Magill Girl Guides, Shah Satnam Ji Green S Welfare Committee, Athelstone Scout Group, Hong Kong Cultural Association of South Australia, Ismaili Civic Adelaide, Sir Sathya Sai Global Council Australia and Who Is Hussain. We’d also like to extend a big thank you to the Mayor of Campbelltown City Council, Jill Whittaker OAM, for spending the morning with us.

While we’ve already reached an incredible milestone within the City of Campbelltown, with close to 6,000 seedlings planted at River Drive Reserve so far, we’re excited to keep building on this momentum. Over the next two years, we’ll be busy planting an additional 14,000 seedlings across the Campbelltown region – and we’ll need your help! You can stay up-to-date via our Adelaide Facebook group.

What’s Next? Join Us!

Our planting season is nearly at an end, but there’s still time to get involved! Every seedling we plant helps cool our streets, create habitat, and build resilience against climate change.

In the coming months we’ll be hosting a series of maintenance days in most of our Urban Forest regions. These events give you the chance to care for our new seedlings before the toasty summer months roll around.

We’re also kicking off events in our new region of Ipswich, Queensland! With 4,000 seedlings to plant between now and October, and both weekend and weekday events available, there’s an opportunity for everyone to take part.

Keep an eye on our Volunteer Portal for upcoming Urban Shade Forest events near you. Whether you’re a long-time volunteer or your first time volunteering, we’d love to see you there!

Let’s grow a greener future together — one seedling at a time.

Conservation Volunteers Australia’s Urban Shade Forest initiative is supported by founding partner Chevron Australia, Chevron’s premium fuel brand Caltex, and supported locally by Campbelltown City Council and the City of Rockingham.