Andrew Yandell Habitat Reserve

This 6 hectare reserve includes 5 hectares of pre-European remnant bushland. It is managed by the Banyule Bushland Management Unit, and with assistance from local volunteers. If you are interested in helping out, join the Friends of Andrew Yandell Habitat.

It has a concrete path and stairs running down the western side of the reserve, and is segmented by some older paths, goat tracks, fire breaks and protective fencing.

The eastern side of Yandell’s is home to Yandell’s Kindergaten, Greenhill’s Preschool, Greenhill’s Neighbourhood House and Greenhill’s Scouts.

Dogs and cats are prohibited from entering environmentally sensitive park and reserve areas as designated by signs. Dogs must be under the effective control with a chain, cord or leash outside currently fenced areas.

History

Andrew Yandell was an active member of the Greenhills community, and a founding member of the Greenhills and North Greensborough Progress Association, formed in 1945. As the area urbanised, the group could see that Greenhills was losing its natural character. Yandell requested Heidelberg City Council to purchase and preserve the 15 acres.

Video

Flora and fauna

The reserve contains remnants of vulnerable and endangered vegetation communities such as box ironbark forest, herb-rich foothill forest and valley grassy forest. The area of herb-rich foothill forest is the only stand known in Banyule while remnants of box ironbark forest are also very rare.

Yandell’s contains 206 species of indigenous plants, eight of which are listed as rare or threatened in Victoria. You can find many wildflowers such as chocolate lilies, twining fringe-lilies, yellow rush-lilies, and a range of greenhood orchids throughout.

104 fauna species have been recorded in the reserve since the late 1980s, of which 84 are indigenous. Andrew Yandell Habitat Reserve is one of only two reserves within Banyule that supports the endangered Eltham copper butterfly, a species restricted to a small number of sites in southern Victoria.

The Eltham copper butterfly has an interesting symbiotic relationship with a species of Notoncus ant and the sweet bursaria. Adult butterflies lay their eggs on the stems of the sweet bursaria and, when the larvae emerge, the ants protect them from predators by escorting them to and from the ant nests found underground at the base of the shrub. The caterpillars feed only at night on the leaves of the sweet bursaria and are usually found with the busy activity of the ants scurrying all over and around them as they are feeding on the sugary secretions of the Eltham copper butterfly larvae.

Following the caterpillars’ metamorphosis, adult Eltham copper butterflies can be seen fluttering through the reserve over summer.

Fauna

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Common name	Scientific name
Australian magpie	Cracticus tibicen
Brown goshawk	Accipiter fasciatus
Brushtail possum	Trichosurus vulpecula
Common ringtail possum	Pseudocheirus peregrinus
Eastern blue tongue lizard	Tiliqua scincoides
Eltham copper butterfly	Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida
Gang gang cockatoo	Callocephalon fimbriatum
King parrot	Alisterus scapularis
Laughing kookaburra	Dacelo novaeguineae
Rainbow lorikeet	Trichoglossus moluccanus
Short-beaked echidna	Tachyglossus aculeatus
Sugar glider	Petaurus breviceps
Tawny frogmouth	Podargus strigoides
Tiger snake	Notechis scutatus

Flora

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Scientific name	Common name
Acacia acinacea	Gold dust wattle
Acacia genistifolia	Spreading wattle
Acrotriche serrulata	Honey pots
Arthropodium strictum	Chocolate lily
Bulbine bulbosa	Bulbine lily
Bursaria spinosa	Sweet bursaria
Caladenia parva	Green-comb spider orchid
Comesperma volubile	Love creeper
Daviesia leptophylla	Narrow-leaf bitter pea
Dianella revoluta	Spreading flax lily
Dianella amoena	Matted flax lily
Dichondra repens	Kidney weed
Eucalyptus melliodora	Yellow box
Goodenia ovata	Hop goodenia
Kennedia prostrata	Running postman
Pterostylis nutans	Nodding greenhood
Pultenea pedunculata	Matted bush pea
Wurmbea dioica	Early nancy

Location

37 St Helena Road, Greensborough 3088  View Map

-37.6995381,145.1128207

37 St Helena Road , Greensborough 3088

37 St Helena Road , Greensborough 3088

Andrew Yandell Habitat Reserve