From the desk of Karl, Restoring Lake Pleasant View Project Officer . 

In February 2023, Green Skills facilitated a cultural and heritage engagement survey in the Tootanellup Nature Reserve, north west of Mt Barker. In this touching video, featuring the stunning landscape of Tootanellup, four Noongar Elders give their personal accounts of spiritual and cultural connection to Noongar land. The survey proved to be a very positive experience and a practical example of Walking Together, between Noongar people and land managers.  

South Coast NRM is very privileged to support the work of Green Skills and this important survey.

Tootanellup is a significant piece of land purchased by Green Skills in 2020, helping to achieve the Gondwana Link goal of 1000 km of connected bush between Margaret River and the edge of the Nullarbor.

It is located strategically between two reserves – Tootanellup Nature Reserve and a Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) reserve that encompasses Boggy Lake and two freshwater wetlands. Significantly, Boggy Lake and Tootanellup Lagoon is discovered to be habitat for the threatened waterbird, Australasian bittern. The Boggy Lake and Tootanellup Lagoon areas also have high densities of important Noongar bush tucker foods, like Zamia cycads and Bloodroot.

Tootanellup is in the section of the Gondwana Link called Forest to Stirlings, which stretches roughly 70 km from the Walpole Wilderness Area (Mt Roe National Park) in the west to the Stirling Range National Park to the east.

Continuing watching to find out more about the Tootanellup Property in this video series produced by Greenskills.