Activate Saplings

20/08/2025

The WA government are taking submissions from the public about Alcoa’s plan to destroy 1000s more hectares of land in WA’s precious Jarrah Forrest’s. Submissions are open until August 25 and every bit helps.

If you’re a part of Activate, you’ve camped in the rain in the middle of winter, planted in pouring rain and lived without any luxuries of modern life for the sake of the forests. This takes two seconds and can be done from the comfort of your own house! Please have your say by following the directions below.

https://endforestmining.org.au/alcoa

Alcoa wants to clear thousands more hectares of precious Jarrah forests and continue to put Perth's drinking water at risk.

But now there's finally a chance for you to have your say. A twelve week comment period is now open on the US miner's expansion plans and current mining.

Add your name to our submission now with our simple form in the comments.

You can also make your own submission. We will be providing a submission guide in the coming weeks once we have digested the hundreds of pages of documents. Sign up to make sure you receive a copy when ready.

10/08/2025

We miss you! If you’ve been missing Activate and the trees since our planting season has wound down, head to Trillion Trees in September for their Spring Open Day!

💚TRILLION TREES OPEN DAY 💚

🌳Saturday 20 September 9am-1pm
📍Trillion Trees Australia, Lot 2 Stirling Crescent, Hazelmere

This is a free community event with a range of stalls and activities. Purchase native plants and enjoy a tour of the community nursery. Find out more about volunteering opportunities and ways to support our work.

🧁☕Refreshments for sale

🌼Native plants 🌼Wildflowers 🌼Stalls 🌼Activities 🌼 Entertainment

22/07/2025

🚨 Help we’re lost! 🚨

Were you separated from one of your precious belongings at one of our festivals this year?

Click through for our LOST & FOUND items‼️

If yours, please message us with a photo of your item & we will organise to return it to you 💚

11/07/2025

🌱 Four Years of Growing Together 🌱
Two weeks ago, we came together for the fourth year of Activate Saplings—and what a gathering it was.

With every tree planted, every rhythm shared, every spark of creativity exchanged, this year’s festival deepened our roots in land, art, and community.

Activate Saplings 2025 is now officially planted. This space exists because of you—your presence, your energy, your care.

To everyone who came, danced, built, created, and held space: thank you for helping this land heal, this community grow stronger, and this vision come alive. 🌿💚✨

Here’s to what we’ve nurtured
🌿

A thank you to our sponsors!

Trillion Trees
Bio Bean Coffee
The Organic Collective
Epirb hire
Mulberry Tree Daycare

A Message From Pete and Jo Randell:

Thank you, Saplings all! We are thrilled with the success of the planting on Dabakarn - a heroic effort in the lovely pouring rain! The seedlings are looking snug and healthy in their new home. Wasn’t the food, the music and vibe fabulous?! Sincere thanks for your efforts, Pete and Jo

To our incredible team of planners 🛠️, musicians 🎶, storytellers 📖, facilitators 🧠 and performers 🎭, you brought the forest to life. Every note, every spark, every shared moment built something beautiful.

Endless gratitude to Jo and Pete 🫶 and our Activate OGs, who continue to hold and guide this vision with so much heart. And to our sponsors and supporters 🤍 — thank you for believing in grassroots magic 🌾
If you have any feedback from the festival, send us a message. We are always up for hearing compliments or ideas for how to improve our event next year.

Information About Lost Property:
If you lost something at the festival please email: [email protected] to see if we found it for you and to arrange pick up :)

Hope to see you all next year! Happy growing!

Send a message to learn more

27/06/2025

🌿💚 Thank You 💚🌿�What a weekend! Our forest is healthier, our hearts are fuller and Activate Saplings 2025 is officially planted 🌱✨

To everyone who came along, danced 💃, planted 🌳, created 🎨, connected 🤝, and made magic with us ✨ thank you. This festival only exists because of your care, your energy, and your willingness to show up for land, art and community 💫

To our incredible team of planners 🛠️, musicians 🎶, storytellers 📖, facilitators 🧠 and performers 🎭, you brought the forest to life. Every note, every spark, every shared moment built something beautiful.

Endless gratitude to Jo and Pete 🫶 and our Activate OGs, who continue to hold and guide this vision with so much heart. And to our sponsors and supporters 🤍 — thank you for believing in grassroots magic and backing this bush-grown dream 🌾

📸 We’ve shared some of our favourite moments below — take a scroll, relive the magic, and if you snapped something special, please send it our way! We’d love to see the weekend through your eyes 💌 if you have any feedback from the festival, send us a message. We are always up for hearing compliments or ideas for how to improve our event next year.

And to everyone heading out to plant in Baskerville this weekend — we’re sending love, strength and soft soils your way 🌤️🪴 Wishing you a safe and beautiful planting!

Hope to see you all next year! Happy growing!

18/06/2025

Hey there beautiful people…

Guess what? just two days until we see each other at Lower Chittering!!
It’s time to get prepped and get packing. Please read this post carefully for all you need to know.

**check your ticket confirmation, for directions**

IMPORTANT UPDATES

Changes to the program
- Gates are open from 4pm, but guests are welcome from 3pm if you’d prefer to arrive a little earlier to setup your camp
- Acknowledgement of Country will be at 6.30pm Friday evening. Don’t miss this, it’s a crucial part of the event!
- The event will wrap up by 3pm at the latest on Sunday. Help us to get the trees in with a big planting effort on the Sunday morning before you go home for a well-earned rest!

Photo Permission
By attending this event, you are consenting to having your photo or your children’s picture being taken. These photos may be posted on social media or used in promotional material. If you do not want your photo taken or used, please contact us or tell a crew member when you arrive at the gate.

What to Bring
Hot Tip: label all your belongings. We always end up with an ‘UGE lost property pile.
- Camping gear – TARPS TARPS TARPS PEOPLE!!!! let's all stay dry :) tent / sleeping setup (bedding, pillow etc.), camp chair
- Bicycle to get around!
- Eating utensils + cup (bring to the shed for breakfast and dinner, we provide washing basins)
- Sturdy footwear. It can be heckin’ muddy, so gumboots are a must and extra socks are always a good idea.
- Warm clothes for cold nights and a raincoat
- Water bottle, hat, sunscreen, lip balm, sunnies, bug repellant, medications, torch and gloves (great for planting)
- Other handy items: hot water bottle, yoga mat, musical instruments, thermos flask, fairy lights for your tent, bag for personal rubbish
- For activities: Bring your favourite wood-crafting tools to make special take-home memories. Some materials will be provided if you don’t bring yours.
- Bring a roll of toilet paper to help us out!
- Cash, if you want to get merch
- Please do not bring your dog (or other animals) to the event

**EXPECT SHOWERS!! bring your best rain gear, gum boots and planting attitude!!**

Other Important Stuff

If you plan to arrive after 8pm Friday evening, please make sure you have made dinner arrangements as we will close the kitchen after 8.
Be a biosecure legend: prevent the spread of dieback by cleaning your shoes before you come down. Dieback can be easily carried in soil on shoes and can have a devastating impact on ecosystems.

We hope you’re pumped for our tree-planting bonanza at Lower Chittering run by the next generation of environmental stewards: Activate Saplings. It’s time to prepare for a wowzer weekend of live music, camping, dancing, and, of course, trees for days 😎. Thanks to our camp hosts this year: the amazing Jo and Pete Randell who will soon be proud guardians of 20,000 little baby trees!

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where this event is held and recognise their continued custodianship and connection to the land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land.

Activate Saplings
This opportunity to help heal lands by planting trees would not be possible without some extremely special people.
The Activate Saplings crew gives biggest respect and thanks to:

💚Viv and Mort Hansen, for Acknowledgement of Country, and to Adrian: Ngala Boorna Moort

💚Jo and Pete Randell, our generous hosts

💚Trillion Trees for funding the seedlings, and providing the planting equipment

💚Boola Boornap Nursery, for growing the trees!

💚Our incredible food and equipment sponsors

💚Our VOLUNTEERS, so many of them, who are running this thing off sweat, effort and a ripper attitude (hopefully not blood and tears)…

And most of all…the Activate Tree Planting Crew (OG’s: our Old Growth) – that includes Charlotte, Lenny, Pierre, Ibis, Mya, Amy, Kath, Rob, Marie, Leo, Jess, Liz, Shan, Rosanne, and forever in our hearts: Thom — who show us how to make an Activate event with so much love. Thank you for your guidance and trust which enables this festival to run. 💚💚💚

See you there!

18/06/2025

🌿✨ We’re SOLD OUT and just TWO days away! ✨🌿

The forest is calling - and our full program is here!

Friday night kicks off with music around the fire from the Pearl Roycroft Duo and storytelling with Koondarm.

Saturday brings planting by day, and a sunset music session featuring Lemon Myrtle, Kooklamu, and Kuachala, followed by a late-night doof under the stars.

Swipe to see the full program and start packing those boots! The bush is ready, and the leaf litter is buzzing with tiny surprises... 🍄✨

12/06/2025

🍂 Oi! Crik here 👷‍♂️🛠️ The Scavenger Hunt is BACK!

Me and the crew are laying the groundwork for the festival, and we’ve got prize plans to finalise.

If you want your dinner brought to you like the royalty you are 🍲👑 follow us on insta so we know whose name to scribble on the blueprints.

No follow, no feast - them's the rules.

We would also like to apologise for the delay in posting. The leaf litter crew are currently on holiday and experiencing an outbreak of encephalitic mozzies and crawling in the bush is too dangerous for our human photographer.

10/06/2025

🌿💚🫡 Massive thanks to everyone who attended our warm-up party with a purpose on Sunday night! We had the most amazing time catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones under the city lights in Perth City Farm. We can’t wait to see you again in just TWO WEEKS, this time under the stars! ✨🌱🏕️

🔥🎶💨A special thanks to our wonderful friend Adrian and his family for opening the event with a smoking ceremony and Welcome to Country. Boodja cannot truly be healed without the guidance and leadership of Aboriginal people and we are forever grateful for theirs, and our many other First Nations friends continued support. Plus, they’re just good company 😉

We sang our hearts out at karaoke 🎤, got crafty with decorations and take-home treasures 🎨🧵 and together, raised money to help bring this year’s festival to life ✨

Every dollar goes straight into making Saplings as cozy, magical and welcoming as it can be – helping us feed hungry bellies 🍲 keep the campfire toasty 🔥 and providing fair compensation to our artists 🎭💃 because their work is worth it.

Another HUGE shout out to Sweatal, Raelene, Pheobe and Wendy for donating and cooking the incredible buffet 🥗🤤🫃 and Beau for smoothing our rough acoustic edges and making us sound like the superstars we know we are 😉 And on a personal note from us Saplings, to Tal and Will from our team who really worked hard to pull this off.

We’re so grateful for this community and everything you bring to the table. You’re helping grow something really special 🌿 Take a look at some of the photos taken on the night and send us some of your own, if you have any!

08/06/2025

🌱 Ever wondered what happened to all those seedlings you helped tuck into the earth?

In 2022 and 2023, our festival took place on Angus’ property out at Noman’s Lake, and in 2024 we planted with Justin and Kelly Armstrong on their beautiful farm 🏞️🌾 Across both sites, thousands of seedlings native to South West Australia grown by Boola Bornap and Trillion Trees Australia were lovingly planted by hand: Acacia, Saltbush, Wandoo and friends - chosen to restore and reconnect precious ecosystems 💚🌳

The care didn’t stop when we packed up our tents. Angus, and Justin and Kelly, have continued nurturing the land in the months and years since 🌾🌤️🌟 Across both sites, over 95% of our seedlings are alive and thriving: a truly incredible result, especially through heat, storms, and wild seasons. It speaks volumes about the care we planted with, and the deep commitment of Angus, Justin and Kelly, who have lovingly tended them since 🧤💦🪴 🌿👀

Of course, not every little tree made it 😔 A small number were lost to fires and floods that are becoming more and more common. It’s always hard to see, but it reminds us why we do this. Every sapling that survives is one more thread in the fabric of a healthier, more resilient Boodja 🪢🪴🕊️

Both Angus, and Justin and Kelly send their heartfelt thanks to all of you who joined shovel to soil 🛠️🧤🌱 They loved hosting and wish Jo and Pete the very best for this year’s festival.

They‘ve sent us some photos of the (once) little guys now. Have a scroll through and see your hard work paying off! It’s a slow kind of magic, but you can already see it working 💚

Want to help get this years trees in the ground? Unfortunately, we are sold out of tickets for our festival but our fundraiser is TONIGHT! Head to our page for tickets, come down and show your support! We can’t wait to see you there!