Restoration On Screen
SERA Film Night 2026
Join us for the “Restoration on Screen” SERA Film Night on Tuesday, 20 October, from 6:00 PM - 8:15 PM in the Ballroom at Amora Adelaide.
This year, we’re excited to showcase nine short films highlighting a diverse range of restoration projects and stories; from marine and landscape-scale restoration to community-led initiatives, campaigns, threatened species conservation, and the important role of cultural advisors in restoration projects across the ACT.
Restoration On Screen Film Night Program
For more information on each project, please read below
Showcased Films
From near extinction: How Australia is restoring its shellfish reefs
Time: 6:15 PM - 6:30 PM
There's a New Mooring In Town
Time: 6:30 PM – 6:37 PM
There’s a New Mooring In Town tells the story of how innovation and collaboration are helping boaters and marine life thrive together. Set in Sydney Harbour, it follows the replacement of 10 traditional swing moorings with Environmentally Friendly Moorings (EFMs) at Balmoral, demonstrating how innovative solutions can reduce damage to endangered Posidonia australis seagrass meadows. Through the perspectives of scientists, the local boating community and marine industry experts, the film explores the partnerships, challenges and opportunities behind adopting this technology, highlighting a practical pathway to protecting critical marine habitat while supporting continued recreational boating.
This short film showcases Project Restore's innovative approach to marine habitat restoration, demonstrating how restoring connected seascapes can regenerate and enhance biodiversity in urban estuaries.
In Sydney Harbour, the project integrates seagrass restoration, kelp enhancement, Living Seawalls, Reef Pods and Environmentally Friendly Moorings across 10 sites and 15 interventions. Early monitoring reveals encouraging habitat-specific recovery, including increased kelp recruitment and high Posidonia australis survival. By moving beyond single-habitat restoration, the film illustrates the potential of coordinated, seascape-scale restoration to strengthen ecological connectivity and provide a practical model for scaling marine restoration worldwide.
Friends of Mount Majura - Canberra ParkCare Group
Time: 6:37 PM – 6:50 PM
For 25 years, the Friends of Mount Majura Parkcare group has restored “The Fair,” a former go-kart track now part of the Nature Reserve. Led by its dedicated convenor, volunteers have spent countless hours weeding, mulching, seeding, planting, watering, and protecting native vegetation from overgrazing. The film celebrates their commitment, revealing how persistence, community spirit, and long-term stewardship transformed a degraded site into a thriving natural landscape and a lasting legacy for conservation in the ACT.
Credits: Film by Richard Snashell. Starring Waltraud Pix and the Friends of Mount Majura Parkcare Group. Funded by ACT Government - Office of Nature Conservation
Friends of Campbells Creek 25th Anniversary
Time: 6:50 PM – 6:58 PM
This film is a celebration of 25 years of the Friends of Campbells Creek Landcare group (FCC).
They have removed 21 skip loads of rubbish from the creek and have converted a crack willow dominated creekline into one where the tree species are (nearly) all indigenous. Platypus numbers have also tripled. They have invested over $2 million in funds and in-kind effort through working bees and have reintroduced 217 absent plant species, including 25 threatened with extinction.
FCC highlights the enormous scale of work needed to reverse the waterway degradation that is so widespread across Victoria and, that it can be achieved with community support.
Ecological and Cultural renewal at Wilyun Pools
Time: 6:58 PM – 7:02 PM
A three minute video recently recorded showing progress with the carbon enabled restoration of Wilyun Pools Farm, a National Landcare Award winning property where a consortium of interests have secured the property, placing under the management and eventual ownership of the Wirlomin Language and Stories Group, and securing some innovative financing arrangements, including a $3million interest free loan, so as to maximise the benefit for Noongar people
PEDDER: The fault in Tasmania’s wilderness, is a story of restoring hope
Time: 7:02 PM – 7:35 PM
Pedder - The fault in Tasmania’s wilderness, is a story of restoring hope.
In 1972 the real Lake Pedder, a global wonder of equal spiritual significance as the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru, was flooded to create an auxiliary Hydro storage impoundment. The controversy generated world wide outcry, creating the conservation movement and Green values politics.
More than 50 years later, the campaign to restore Lake Pedder has resurfaced, as the dams are deemed high-risk having been constructed on a fault line.
Featuring Bob Brown, Tabatha Badger, Christine Milne, Rima Truchanas, Prof. Jamie Kirkpatrick, Dr. Kevin Kiernan, Jimmy Cordwell, Julie Gough & Tobias Burrows.
Back from the Brink - The fight to save the western beautiful firetail
Time: 7:35 PM – 7:40 PM
The Mount Lofty Ranges chestnut-rumped heathwren, Mount Lofty Ranges southern emu-wren, and western beautiful firetail are nationally threatened species that inhabit dense heathy or swampy shrublands in the Hills and Fleurieu region. They face ongoing declines caused by habitat loss.
Through the ‘Back from the Brink’ project, Landscapes Hills and Fleurieu has been reducing immediate extinction risks and improving the long-term viability of these species.
Join Landscapes Hills and Fleurieu’s Regional Ecologist Luke Price, and bird expert Graham Carpenter, as they talk about heathland revegetation for threatened birds and the fight to save the western beautiful firetail.
The Back from the Brink project is currently funded by the Australian Government Natural Heritage Trust and delivered by Hills and Fleurieu Landscape Board, a member of the Commonwealth Regional Delivery Partners panel.
ACT Ngunnawal Cultural Advisors v2
Time: 7:40 PM - 7:51 PM
For four Ngunnawal Cultural Advisors, Caring for Country is more than land management, it is about reconnecting people, culture and Country. Partnering with the ACT Government’s Office of Nature Conservation, they are helping Ngunnawal community members re-engage with Country while embedding cultural knowledge and practices into ecological restoration and land management. The film explores this innovative partnership, which is testing a new model for government engagement and creating opportunities for Ngunnawal-led Caring for Country programs across the ACT.
Credits: Film by Richard Snashell with thanks to Adrian Muscatt. Starring Cultural Advisors Gemma Bell, Justine Brown, Tyson Powell and Cheyne Halloran. Thanks to Kristy Gould, Braithan Bell, Meredith Cosgrove and Nicola Lambert. Funded by ACT Government - Office of Nature Conservation
Wurreka Galkangu – Walking together to heal Country
Time: 7:51 PM - 8:07 PM
As Dja Dja Wurrung Country wakes, Bundjiyl looks out over north-west Victoria. Bird chorus rises and early light stretches across woodlands, grasslands and mallee shrublands.
Join Dja Dja Wurrung Traditional Custodians, Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation and conservation organisation Bush Heritage Australia as they come together to heal Country for future generations.
Witness the return of good fire, invasive species management, care for culturally significant sites, and a partnership grow stronger through trust, listening and sharing knowledge.
Wurreka Galkangu – Walking Together to Heal Country tells the story of what is possible when cultural knowledge and conservation walk forward together.
This is a partnership film from DJAARA and Bush Heritage Australia produced by Grassland Films.
Cast & crew
Featuring: Amos Atkinson, Bam Lees, Rachel Lowry, Rebecca Phillips, Nathan Wong, Levi Jessen Fennell, Neil Morris, Tegan Hibberson, Daniel Nugent and Andrew Saunders.
Music:
“Waa Djandak Wii”
Produced by Neil Morris, Minyerra and performed by Michael Bourke
“Keep the Fire Burning”
Performed and produced by Neil Morris, Minyerra
Directed & filmed by: Michael Portway and Tim Brown of Grassland Films
Produced by: Michael Portway, Tim Brown and Bee Stephens
Acknowledgement:
We give our gratitude to Djaara people, the Traditional Custodians of Dja Dja Wurrung Country, Victoria, on which this film was created, and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge the collective effort of the many people who contribute to the ongoing partnership between DJAARA (Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation) and Bush Heritage Australia. We thank Helen Macpherson Smith Trust for their generous support of Wurreka Galkangu, this film and the Wurreka Galkangu Shared Strategic Plan 2024-2034.
