27-01-2025
Calls for simple roadside change after council workers spotted in expensive 2.5km act
Mowing the grass around Aussie cities comes at a seriously big expense. For instance, Brisbane City Council will reportedly be spending an eye-watering $32 million this year to keep its grass cut low.
While the majority of the spending will be on public parks and natural places, there's one area that experts believe could be overhauled to save the tax-payer's dime — grassy nature strips. By replacing them with native plants, they believe councils and residents could be saving money and helping the environment, not just in one city, but across the nation.
Native bee expert Clancy Lester shared his thoughts after watching council workers use hand mowers to tackle a 2.5 km-long nature strip along a busy road in inner-city Melbourne recently. Speaking to Yahoo News on Monday he described the process of tirelessly cutting nature strips as a 'waste of money and resources'.
But rather than feel frustrated or annoyed, instead he sees an opportunity.
'It makes me feel optimistic because there's real potential for these sites,' he said. 'These little green spaces that are sporadically laid out right across cities, could be converted into high-value biodiversity hot spots.'
Melbourne City Council has been contacted for comment.
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Lester specialises in pollination ecology and the types of plants that attract Australia's 1,650 native bee species. By increasing their habitat across our cities, population numbers could be boosted and that's great news for home gardeners, particularly those wishing to save a buck amid escalating cost-of-living pressures.
'They're just so important for pollination. And there's such a wide diversity of native bees – within 10km of the Melbourne Post Office, there's over 100 species,' he said.
'For the last 20 million plus years, these species have specialised in pollinating and helping native plants set seed and create fruits. But they're also incredibly valuable to all the people who live in cities who have tomatoes or other fruits and veggies and want to become a bit more self-sufficient.'
Not all councils allow residents to transform their nature strip into native gardens, but for those permitted to do so, there is help available. If you type your postcode into the Wheen Bee Foundation's Powerful Pollinators Planting Guide it will list the specific species that will thrive and help insects in your suburb. Many councils also provide advice about recommended plant species to plant on nature strips.
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Over the long weekend, Lester took to social media to spruik the potential of converting labour and water-intensive grass strips into native plant hubs.
'We can do so much better for pollinators by planting indigenous flowering plants. So let's up our game. Anything but lawn,' he urged.
The concept received widespread praise from his followers, with some suggesting the planting of fruit trees on city streets could help provide fresh produce for residents. However, planting of bird and bat-attracting species would need to be away from busy roads to ensure it didn't lure native species into the path of vehicles.
In a separate video, Sarah Aubrey who runs the popular Electrify This TikTok account shared vision of nature strips around Sydney that had already been converted. 'How lovely is this… they don't need to be maintained by petrol mowers,' she said last week.
'It needs to be like this everywhere,' one person said. 'Looks great. I'm doing it,' another person added.
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