Sustainable Plant Project at Saltair Day Spa
A new Sustainability Project between the Native Plant Project in corroboration with Saltair Spa Group is underway to transform the extensive gardens at Saltair Day Spa Torquay back to its pre-settlement indigenous native fauna. A 5-10 year project that has just commenced.
The Original Ashmore Family Farm Cottage was situated at the present day location of the Saltair Day Spa Torquay that also commanded extensive views through Spring Creek out toward the Otway National Park and Torquay Ocean Waters, just the same as it is today.
Prior to settlement the Ashmore Farm Cottage was at the edge of a long narrow sand belt that follows the plateau to the North-East across Grossmans Road, parts of Ocean Acres Estate, Coombes Road and finishes in Grass Tree Park area.
Due to the sandy sand belt this area was highly populated with a particular Grass Tree which was indigenous to this area pre-settlement being Xanthorrhoea australis – a Grass Tree where Torquay provides for perfect growing conditions where this is very good drainage.
Australis a particular subspecies of the Xanthorrhoea Grass Tree species that has been found to be the most likely of the original subspecies that were in this area having reminiscence of this particular subspecies dominating the Grass Trees populations that remain at the Grass Tree Park. Australis has been identified elsewhere in the sand belt.
Saltair Spa Director Tamara Melis says she is very excited about the project although will take over 5 years before the formation of any form of forest due the growth rate of the Trees. Tamara’s Father Keith Grossman has been a wealth of knowledge of this matter and remembers the Grass Tree Forrest as a young child around the Ashmore Farm Cottage. Mr Keith Grossman the landowner remembers as a child the Grass Trees in this area stretched all the way through to what is now the Grass Tree Park before they were all removed by Farmers and Council to make way for Roads and Farms.
Mr Grossman has been invaluable to this project and information handed down as the last of his generation from this area. The project will see a 1000 to 2000 Grass Tree forest that will ecstatically transform the landscape with the current non-indigenous vegetation.
We have to apologise for any inconvenience of the condition of the immediate grounds as we do transform through the years but the rewards will be breathtaking in so many sustainable ways as an example for the future.
Saltair Spa
