THE Peter Frances Points Arboretum committee is currently celebrating some very exciting news.

After two years of persistent pleas from the arboretum committee and the Southern Grampians Shire Council to take back the management of the arboretum from the Victorian Government, our wish has finally been granted.

The Coleraine community can now work to restore the arboretum back to its former glory when it was established back in 1966 by Wannon Shire Council engineer Joe Wright.

Together with local lady Mary Hope, they planted out a former quarry and tip site to the immediate south of Coleraine on the hill, to develop what became the largest and most significant collection of Australian eucalypts and banksias in the world.

Retired bridge builder Peter Frances then became involved in its development and a 16-hectare site was fenced off and named the Points Reserve. Today, the area spans 37 hectares thanks to a large contribution from the Handbury family.

So how did it end up in the hands of the government?

In 1983 a bushfire damaged a third of the collection, but the community banded together to replant the area and was able to restore many of the plants and trees to the original collection.

In the following year, the Department of Conservation and Lands took over the management of the arboretum, which led the community to believe there would be permanent funding to take care of the site and a push for it to be nationally recognised.

It was at this time that Neville Bonney surveyed and indexed the entire collection and, as a result, the eucalypt collection was officially recognised as nationally significant in 1989 and the banksia collection was declared the same in 1999.

Over a number of years, the money to manage the arboretum has dried up and this once magnificent arboretum has fallen into a state of disrepair. But the Coleraine community never gave up. After four long drawn-out years committee chair Howard Templeton received confirmation that management would be handed back to the local committee of management.

Well done to those who kept up the fight with government ministers and departments to now have this national treasure back in our hands, especially Margaret Rutter who kept the committee alive for so many years. Margaret has written and published a magnificent strategic plan for the arboretum and a resource book about the plant collection.

Even though there is a lot of work to bring it back to its original state, the Peter Frances Points Arboretum is a living library of Australian native plants, so I encourage you to visit (there are working barbecues so you can relax and enjoy a picnic) and immerse yourselves in the beauty of the trees and all the wildlife that live amongst them.

For more information about the arboretum and its history you can visit www.thepoints.org.au