Between the fast-growing towns of Beveridge and Wallan lies a narrow ribbon of land that time – and development – nearly forgot.

While much of the surrounding landscape was drained, dynamited and cleared for agriculture over a century ago, the Melbourne–Sydney rail corridor remained fenced off from livestock and protected from the plough.

Over many decades, this thin strip of land has become a biological time capsule. It is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Seasonal Herbaceous Wetland: an ecological community so rare it is protected under national law.

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