Volunteer
Take the next step…
Join our team: Volunteer with the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater
Become a crucial part of saving one of Australia’s rarest birds!
The Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater Inc. is a passionate, community-led charitable organisation dedicated to bringing Victoria’s critically endangered bird emblem back from the brink of extinction.
While hands-on bush restoration is the heart of what we do, it takes a diverse ecosystem of talents behind the scenes to keep our wildlife conservation efforts moving forward.
At our home in the heart of Helmeted Honeyeater habitat, we are entering an exciting new era of growth as we take our native plant nursery to the next level! To support our mission, we are modernising our operations by incorporating cutting-edge production management systems and a brand-new integrated Point of Sale (POS) system. These advancements will drastically improve our customer experiences and enable us to actively develop new commercial clients for our highly specialised indigenous plants.
To help us do this, we are currently looking to inject new blood into our small but active volunteer management team, as well as recruit passionate individuals across a wide range of more specialised and generalist roles.
If you have professional skills, trade, or creative talents that you would enjoy applying to a deeply meaningful cause, we would love to welcome you aboard!
Find your perfect fit
We are actively seeking volunteers to help us grow and thrive in the following areas:
- Leadership & strategy: Step into our volunteer management team to help steer our projects and shape the future of our organisation.
- Business, finance & retail: We need sharp minds for business administration, finance, and bookkeeping to keep our operations strong, as well as friendly faces for retail sales to support our merchandise and public outreach.
- Horticulture & education: Share your green thumb in indigenous horticulture at our native nursery, or inspire the next generation through our environmental education programs.
- Community & digital outreach: Help us grow our movement through volunteer engagement and social media strategy to amplify our voice online.
- Trades, tools & maintenance: Keep our vital infrastructure running safely! We are highly keen to connect with tradies, handy men and women for ongoing site and asset maintenance.
Whether you can commit to a few hours a month from your laptop or want to get stuck into regular practical work on-site, your time will make a direct, measurable difference to the survival of the Helmeted Honeyeater and Lowland Leadbeater’s Possum.
Keen to take the next step?
Please reach out to our team at admin@fohh.org.au with a brief note about your background, skills, and areas of interest, and we will be in touch to chat about how you can best fit into our friendly volunteer community.
Hear about some of the valuable work our volunteers do here.
Nursery polyhouse
Dudley & Noel (in fond memory), Natalie and Murray volunteering in the nursery. Image: S.Tardif
Become an active member of our Seeds and Weeds team
This small but essential group of friends generally meet monthly on a Sunday to participate in a range of activities that may include:
- seed collecting
- targeted weeding
- habitat planting, or
- works around the nursery or within the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Area.
While visiting the nursery, check out our new, purpose built seed storage facility!
On activity days, we meet at the Yellingbo Ranger’s House, 1217 Macclesfield Road, Yellingbo (Melway Map 305 Ref. G11) at 9.15am. BYO lunch and water and wear sturdy footwear and wear clothing appropriate to the weather and activity type. Most equipment is supplied and it’s handy to have gumboots in wet weather. All activities are undertaken under the supervision and direction of our Seeds & Weeds coordinator, Richard Case. To register your interest in joining these activities and to find out activity dates, please contact Richard at: seedsandweeds@fohh.org.au.
Our Citizen Science activities
- Bird & frog surveys (morning and afternoon)
- iNaturalist nature walks (mornings)
- Twilight Walks
- 2-3 weekdays per month, with the occasional weekend, following the seasons
- regular and casual involvement welcome.
Looking for something that expends some energy whilst making great use of your plant, fauna and/or fungi knowledge? Perhaps you’re looking to learn? Maybe you just want to get stuck into something useful along like-minded people?
We organise our surveys to capture data across the six seasons in the Middle Yarra Timelines Calendar of the Wurundjeri, the First Nations people of the land we work and volunteer on.
It’s common to think you don’t know enough to contribute to ecological surveys, but we don’t believe that’s true. Citizen science is a way for people of all ages and prior knowledge to get closer to nature. It involves recording the plants, animals and fungi you encounter in an area, using your own smart phone and carefully selected apps. We upload our observations into our iNaturalist project ‘Yellingbo and surrounds’, Birdata (Birdlife Australia) and FrogID (Australian Museum). This information is then used by scientists to understand where species live, when they’re active, and any changes happening in the local environment. Anyone can be a citizen scientist! The data we collect contributes to the Australian Living Atlas.
You will feel a satisfyingly ‘good’ tired, knowing your time has not been wasted and is valued.
When you’re in Yellingbo Nature Conservation Area with us, you may get wet and/or cold or hot at times, but you will expect this being out in the bush. It’s part of the joy, along with the smiles, laughter and exercise we’ll share!
REGISTER for upcoming events HERE.
High summer flora survey in the Reserve. Image A.Gregorovich
Typical Bird survey results (5km search)
Erica recording the species data on our Twilight Walk. Image S.Tardif
Youth events – currently on hold.
However, REGISTER NOW for the next Citizen Science events HERE
- variable days – weekdays & weekends, following the seasons
- once-off or longer-term commitment.
Our youth events are part social, part science, part environmental volunteering.
Youth events welcome any person aged 18-31+ who resonates with the event descriptions. Events focus on providing meaningful volunteer opportunities for people who may be new to the environmental sector to build social connections and transferrable skills.
Our program of activities leaves space for evolution. Frog surveys, plant ID, weed management techniques, orchid protection, story telling and more! The data our youth events collect contributes to the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater’s iNaturalist project ‘Yellingbo and surrounds’, and our FrogID group ‘Friends of the HeHo citizen scientists – VIC’. The data we collect contributes to the Australian Living Atlas.
Find out more about the aims of the Youth Reference Group HERE. If you are aged 18-31+, you too can contribute to the current and future plans of the YRG. You’d be warmly welcomed.
REGISTER for an upcoming Citizen Science event HERE. Sue and the team would love you to join them.
Have a minute?
- Like us on Facebook. Share our posts.
- Follow us on Instagram. Share our posts.
- Wear or gift our merchandise.
- Help spread our conservation message.
Page Followers. Would you help spread the message?
Members of the Youth Reference Group
Amy, the FoHH Youth Reference Group convenor, learning how to remove Spanish Heath
Our program partners
In addition to the work of our volunteers and wider community, the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater work with a recovery team.
A recovery team is established to guide and coordinate the management and recovery of endangered species. In 1989, the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater was one of the founding members of the Helmeted Honeyeater Recovery Team, and has been continuously active on it, and its working-groups, ever since. The recovery of the Helmeted Honeyeater would not be effective without strong partnerships. Please take a look at the activities members of the Helmeted Honeyeater Recovery Team operate. There may be ways you can also give them a helping hand.
Membership of the Helmeted Honeyeater Recovery Team is made up of representatives from:
- Birdlife Australia
- Cardinia Shire Council
- the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA)
- Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater
- Monash University
- Melbourne Water
- Parks Victoria (PV)
- Southeast Botanical Consulting
- Yarra Ranges Council
- Zoos Victoria
with co-opted expertise contributed by other individuals/organisations/community groups, as required.
