This dry woodland reserve is one of the few places in Australia that is home to the endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly, thought in the 1950s to be extinct but discovered again at Eltham, Victoria in 1986 and in this reserve a year later.
Importantly for the butterfly, the reserve is also home to the Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa) plant and the Notoncus capitatus ant.
In an exquisite example of nature’s symbiosis or interdependency, the butterfly lays its eggs at the base of the Sweet Bursaria where the Notoncus ant also nests.
The butterfly larvae hatch as caterpillars and crawl into the ant nest where ants feed on sugars secreted from the caterpillars’ bodies. The caterpillars, in turn, carry or lead the ants upwards to browse on Sweet Bursaria leaves.
The reserve is also home to 98 indigenous flora species including the Black Anther Flax Lily (Dianella revoluta).