Earthcare is a practical, local environment group. We work closely with specialists and the Council to improve the environment in the City of Port Phillip. Our main projects are to increase the diversity and extent of indigenous vegetation including sites such as West Beach and the Canterbury Road Urban Forest, we study the penguin and rakali populations, we have air and water quality monitoring groups and underwater studies of St Kilda harbour, and we are creating an environmentally sustainable house.
Earthcare has contributed to improving the environment of St Kilda since it was established in 1989. Local environmentalists were spurred into action when the council released plans to redevelop the St. Kilda harbour, home to a colony of fairy penguins. Earthcare successfully lobbied to make St Kilda breakwater a Wildlife Management Conservation Area (WMCA); providing a safer environment for the penguin colony. Since 1989 the penguin colony has increased in size; this can be attributed to the both the elimination of harmful litter and improved breeding conditions. Earthcare is also committed to several ongoing revegetation projects; which are transforming degraded urban areas into areas brimming with indigenous plant species.