About the program

Find out how we're securing the future of our rarest plants, animals and ecosystems.

Protecting nature around Melbourne

From the elusive golden sun moth to the shy southern brown bandicoot, some of our most threatened animals and plants live right next door to us. We’re taking action to protect our rarest species, so they thrive into the future.

Yellow ball flower on a green stem background blurred

How it works

Find out how the MSA Program works to balance development, which is essential to our city’s growth, with protecting our environment for generations to come.

A bird flying over dry grass with Mountainous Skyline

Conservation in action

Find out how we're taking action to protect nature by creating conservation reserves and running species management programs.

Working together

Our partners and stakeholders play a critical role in delivering the MSA Program. By working together, we can protect our threatened species and ecosystems.

Saving our species and ecosystems

A tufted, yellow single flower. The yellow flower heads consist of numerous tiny flowers clustered together.

Button wrinklewort

Read about this small native daisy that blooms in summer. Once widespread south of the Great Dividing Range, it’s now only found in small areas in south-western Victoria and tiny patches around Melbourne.

Matted flax-lily

Read about this dainty native plant with small violet, star-shaped flowers and green-grey leaves.

Brown and natural coloured moth on the ground in the bush surrounded by brown debris

Golden sun moth

Find out how we're working to protect the golden sun moth, one of Victoria’s rarest insects.

Growling grass frog sitting on a rock with reeds in the background

Growling grass frog

Learn more about one of of Australia's largest frogs, which has a call that sounds like a motorbike revving.

Brown legless lizard half coiled on a rock

Striped legless lizard

Learn about this shy little reptile, often mistaken for a small snake.

Dry natural temperate grassland

Natural temperate grassland

Filled with native herbs, grasses, unique wildflowers and a scattering of shrubs and trees, these unique grasslands are now confined to a few small remaining patches.

Sun shining through a big tree in a grassland

Grassy eucalypt woodland

Find out about this unique ecosystem home to sprawling red gums, native grasslands, birds and possums.

Close up of white rice flower plant

Spiny rice-flower

With small, cream flowers and pale green, oval leaves, the spiny rice-flower grows up to around 30cm in height and lives for up to 100 years.

Herbaceous leaves in a wetland with green grass surrounding them

Seasonal herbaceous wetland

Learn about one of Victoria's vital freshwater habitats, home to a range of unique plants and animals.

Southern brown bandicoots have a stocky body with a short snout and short, rounded ears.

Southern brown bandicoot

With short, rounded ears, a pointy snout, strong feet and a stocky body, the Southern brown bandicoot was once widespread throughout Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.