00:00The tiny Derinalum billybutton is so rare, only one population has been found surviving
00:08in the wild.
00:09But thanks to careful work underway in Western Victoria, it's being rescued from the brink
00:14of extinction.
00:15Across the volcanic plains we've probably got less than 1% of native grasslands that
00:20still remain.
00:21The billybutton is one of 17 plants being saved.
00:25Sheep farmer and land care volunteer David Franklin spent decades figuring out how to
00:29make these grassland plants grow.
00:31It just becomes a bit of a challenge actually to try and overcome the secrets that they
00:38all seem to hold.
00:40Some of these endangered plants will be used to produce more seed, others will be reintroduced
00:45to reserves and private farmland.
00:47They've been reduced down to such a small area in Victoria since White Settlement that
00:53you just look at them and say, oh, how can we try and keep what we've got left?
00:59Victoria's best remaining grasslands exist on nondescript roadsides like this.
01:04And it's believed that CFA planned burns have unintentionally played a big part in their
01:09survival by mimicking how Aboriginal land managers had maintained the grasslands for
01:15thousands of years.
01:16It's been the optimal sort of management to maintain really highly diverse native grassland
01:21on the roadsides.
01:23But locals say these burns are becoming less frequent.
01:26We haven't managed to get burning done as frequently in the last 10 years.
01:32There's just fewer families, fewer people and a lot of jobs fall to a few.
01:38Finding the next generation of volunteers is a problem the land care group faces too.
01:42I suppose one of the things we struggle with is finding new members who are younger.
01:48Looking for help to continue saving some of Victoria's most precious flowers.
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