More than 35 green-thumbed community members donned their wet weather gear and gardening gloves and headed to the Thomas Maddock Reserve in Drouin last Sunday for Baw Baw Shire's annual National Tree Day planting event.
Despite the rain, community members, Friends of Drouin's Trees volunteers, Drouin Scouts and relatives of Thomas Maddock came together to help the council team plant more than 900 plants in the reserve.
The new plants will help to transform the natural habitat in the area and provide future vegetation cover.
The Thomas Maddock Reserve is named after Drouin local and World War II Royal Australian Airforce veteran, Thomas "Tom" Maddock.
He was born in Drouin in July 1922 and died in May 2012, aged 89 years. He served as treasurer of the Drouin RSL between 1998 –2004. The Thomas Maddock Reserve was named after him in December 2019.
Thomas Maddock's brother, Keith Maddock and his daughter Jennifer Maddock attended the National Tree Day planting event.
The planting event concluded with a sausage sizzle run by the Drouin Rotary Club.