MOUNT Buffalo’s unique granite island formation, which plays home to endemic species, has been safeguarded with multiple threatened plants now protected from future bushfire events.

Earlier this year, staff from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) in conjunction with Parks Victoria and Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria collected plant seeds from bushfire ravaged Mount Buffalo.

The team looked for salvageable Snow Lebelia gelida, Buffalo Sallow-wattle, Acacia phlebophylla and Sannantha Creulata and as senior conservations botanist Neville Walsh said, the need to save the decreasing populations is more important than ever.

“I’ve been watching populations of those over the last 30 years and they’re getting smaller and smaller so the roll of seeds to keep that species going is becoming increasingly important,” he said.

Mr Neville said the team was pleasantly surprised to find enough Eucalyptus pauciflora subspecies debeuzevillei to save.

“This sub species occurs in Victoria, only on the The Horn, and The Horn was comprehensively burnt,” he said.

“But we were hoping that there might be some little pockets that had missed the fire and sure enough we found two trees.

“The Horn is the highest and potentially the driest part of the mountain so the potential is therefore that subspecies could become extinct.”

An unnamed wattle, which is usually only found in Cobungra, was also found in the general area of the national park.

By holding the seeds of the multiple one-of-a-kind species on Mount Buffalo, the team has essentially futureproofed their existence.

“There is a number of species here on Buffalo that occur nowhere else, if we lose them - that’s it,” Mr Neville said.

“But by holding their seeds we’ve got the capacity to bring them back should they go, now I hope to hell that it doesn’t happen but in case it does we’ve got the material.”

The project is part of the Victorian Governments $17.5 million Bushfire Biodiversity Relief and Early Recovery program.