Once known as brown wedges, the work of ecologists including Sarah Bekessy and Ascelin Gordon of RMIT has shown that the biodiversity of the western basalt plains grasslands rivals Kakadu. Native grasslands, Victoria's prairies, once stretched from the western edge of Melbourne nearly to the South Australian border, but now only a tiny percentage remains. They were ablaze with wildflowers in spring and supported many different species of marsupials and reptiles including Striped Legless Lizard and Fat-tailed Dunnart. The Werribee and Melton Plains support the largest remaining areas of Victoria's Basalt Plains Grasslands and are one of Australia's 15 Biodiversity Hotspots.
From "Government Green light for Destruction of Green Wedges"
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