Propagation of Key Local Species
in Currumbin Valley

Gold Coast Airport Community Benefit Fund

In July 2023 Earth Learning was awarded a grant by Gold Coast Airport Community Benefit Fund to support a small grassroots initiative to benefit our local environment and support rare and endangered plants and two butterflies, one of which has been rare but sighted in Currumbin Valley in the last three years.

This project supports local Earth Learning Inc members to on-grow two different local plant species - namely Viola betonicifolia (Arrowhead violet) and Aristolochia praevenosa (Richmond Birdwing Butterfly vine).

These plants are the host plants for the Australian Fratillary Butterfly [AFB] (Argynnis hyperbius) and the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly [RBB] (Ornithptera richmondia) respectively.

Both butterfly species are dependent on these single host plants and we would like to bolster plantings in our community. Currumbin Valley has uncommon sightings of the RBB and no one knows if the Australian Fratillary butterfly is in our midst, but it is hard to sight without a presence of the host plants it frequents and prefers.

It is expected that these plants will be raised locally in Currumbin Valley, nurtured by Earth Learning members until they are mature enough to plant out and later redistributed and planted in key locations in our local area to bolster the plant communities.