Project overview
Local Land Services worked with landholders to reduce environmental threats and begin to restore endangered Sandhill Pine Woodlands.
Project objectives
This project:
- reduced feral pests and weeds
- increased landholders' knowledge
- revegetated areas of Sandhill Pine Woodlands.
Project background
The Sandhill Pine Woodlands are a diverse, ancient, and unique part of the Riverina bioregion. The Sandhill Pine Woodlands are currently listed as an Endangered Ecological Community (EEC), meaning they're at risk of extinction unless threats effecting these areas are managed or reduced.
Threats include:
- pests such as rabbits and weeds
- over-grazing by livestock
- procurement of timber for building materials
- sand extraction.
Sandhill Pine Woodland Restoration project
Sandhill Pine Woodlands are an incredibly diverse, ancient, and unique part of the NSW Riverina landscape.
Project delivery
A range of activities were undertaken by Local Land Services and landholders throughout the project, including:
- fencing off areas to control total grazing pressure
- engaging Aboriginal cultural heritage surveys on areas where soil would be disturbed
- weed control works
- seed collection, sorting, cleaning, storage and germination
- direct seeding
- monitoring of seed germination and regeneration
- extension advice about Sandhill Pine Woodlands.

Project updates
June 2025
- On-ground work like pest control, revegetation and grazing management has been completed.
- Monitoring points have been established on the project sites and will continue to be monitored annually.
- To further educate landholders, an information brochure was produced to educate landholders on the plant species that belonged on a sandhill pine community and a workshop with expert speakers was held to talk about the community and how it can be helped.
Read the media release - Monitoring of project sites confirms regeneration of Sandhill Pine Woodlands in Western NSW
Sandhill Pine Woodland Restoration project – landholder case study
Landholders in the Hillston area have long been passionate about the Sandhill Pine Woodlands.
October 2023
- Landholders fenced off the remnant Sandhill Pine areas to control grazing pressure and slashed and sprayed the lines to give the seeds the best chance of germination.
- 80 kg of native seed of a diverse mix of 18 species to create overstorey and understorey was then direct-sown into the 150 hectares over 230km of seeding lines.
Read the media release - Sandhill Pines in the ground and ready to grow

Project outcomes
Pleasing results have been recorded following monitoring activities. These include:
- 80 kg of native seeds collected for direct seeding
- 3 landholders direct seeded 80 kg of native seed across 134 hectares
- reduction of boxthorn weed across the landscape
- natural regeneration of pine
- establishment of new plants such as acacias and hakeas from the direct seeding
- improved condition of vegetation community in the absence of grazing by domestic stock and weeds.
"The pines had been taken away for fencing material many years ago and the land was eroding away. It needed fencing to exclude the livestock to stop the erosion. It’s been a family project that we wanted to do for some time. My mother planted some Pine trees up there in the late 1980s.”
– Geoff Peters, Ballatherie Pastoral Station

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Funding and partnerships
This project has been delivered by Local Land Services and assisted by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust.
Key partners include:
- Ballatherie Pastoral Station
- Tocabil Station - Rural Funds Management
- Euabalong Station
- Down the Track.
For more information about this project, please contact Andrea Cashmere, Senior Land Services Officer on 0417 050 138 or at andrea.cashmere@lls.nsw.gov.au
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