Growing Resilience Project
Maitland City Council has secured $400,000 through the NSW Government’s Greening Our Cities Grant 2025 to deliver the Growing Resilience Project — planting 400 trees and establishing Maitland’s first Tiny Forest to reduce urban heat and strengthen our local environment.
This initiative supports our work to establish a more resilient, sustainable Maitland and delivers on targets within the Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2030 to support the development of a new Greening Plan.
We’re now working with the community to identify priority planting locations, ensuring shade and cooling are provided where they are needed most.
This project is proudly funded by the NSW Government under the Greening Our Cities Grant 2025.
Help us identify where shade is needed most in our community
Drop a pin on a public place where additional shade would benefit your community — such as parks, playgrounds, walking routes, bus stops or sports fields.
Priority planting areas are highlighted in purple to show the main focus of this grant, but you can place a marker in any Maitland suburb to help guide future tree planting efforts.
Suitable planting areas have been identified where communities are most vulnerable to urban heat impacts and where planting can strengthen Council’s Green and Blue Grid. Final locations will be refined through community consultation and on-ground site assessments.
The $400,000 grant funds more than just trees. It covers planting, 12 months of establishment watering, environmental assessments to meet legislative requirements, and the creation of a Tiny Forest in a priority suburb. In high-use areas like parks, larger, high-quality trees will be planted to provide shade and cooling benefits sooner.
A tiny forest is a small, densely planted area of native trees and shrubs designed to grow quickly and provide strong cooling, biodiversity, and habitat benefits in a compact space—often in places where larger green spaces aren’t possible. We'll aim to create a forest around the size of a tennis court in one of our priority suburbs (Aberglasslyn, Lochinvar, Rutherford, Gillieston heights).
Progress updates will be shared on this page. Check the timeline above to see when new updates will be available.
Complete the survey below
Your feedback will help shape practical, on-ground greening and habitat restoration projects across Maitland.
