THREE Mornington Peninsula not-for-profit organisations are among 251 community initiatives across Australia to receive funding through Australia Post’s 2026 People of Post grant program.
Projex J, Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association, and Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation each received $2,000 from the program, which awarded almost $500,000 nationally this year.
Shivaun Hanlon from Projex J said the grant would support the not-for-profit’s free grief and wellbeing programs for children, parents and families on the peninsula.
The organisation was founded by Chantelle Ross following the death of her son Jameson, known as Jammo, in a hit-and-run accident in October 2022. (Keeping busy with living after grief, The News 20/2/24)
“Grief hits everyone, and you don’t know how to manage that until you actually go through that experience,” said Hanlon.
The committee of 10 volunteers runs monthly and bi-monthly support sessions for bereaved parents and for children aged 13 to 25, alongside community gatherings and breath work sessions delivered in conjunction with Mornington-based Tribe Six.
Hanlon said the funding would help bring specialists into the group sessions.
“We try and get specialists there as often as we can… a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a guest speaker to come along to those events,” she said.
Projex J also runs an annual fishing day at Mornington Park in memory of Jameson, who Hanlon described as a “get on and get out there type of guy” who loved fishing. The event hands 50 to 100 fishing rods to local children and pairs them with lessons from Fish Care.
“It’s also a way to open up and get people talking and sharing different things,” said Hanlon.
Hanlon said Ross had long observed that grief support on the peninsula was limited and expensive.
“Our aim is obviously to have these grief groups run across the Mornington Peninsula, running more often than we do now, but also to have them free and freely available to those who need them,” said Hanlon.
Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association will use its grant for its Bush Kids Connecting With Country project, developing cultural learning resources for a new “Bush Kids” area at the gathering place. The materials will include those needed to build a living bundabun (turtle) sculpture featuring bush tucker plants. The on-Country learning program is guided by Elders and aims to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preschool children’s connection to Country, culture and identity.
Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation president, Dirk Jansen, said the funding had arrived at a critical moment for the group’s annual planting program. (Volunteers needed for tree planting to support koalas, The News 30/4/26)
The organisation began as a Facebook group in 2018 to track local koala sightings and was registered as a Landcare group in 2020. It has grown from three people to more than 200, planting around 30,000 trees each winter on private properties across the peninsula.
More than 70 per cent of koala habitat on the peninsula is on private property, Jansen said, which means much of the group’s work involves engaging landholders, hobby farms and wineries to plant corridors connecting remaining patches of vegetation.
He said development around Frankston and Cranbourne meant the peninsula risked “becoming an island for wildlife”, with few good connections left to mainland Victoria for animals to move between populations.
“Habitat loss down here, like in the rest of Australia, is the main driver for the decline of koalas and most of our wildlife,” said Jansen.
Jansen said the planting program cost about $150,000 each year, and pressures on that budget had mounted in recent weeks.
“This year, the challenge is also with what’s going on in the world – that all of a sudden there are fuel levies and additional charges and price increases.
“The Australia Post grant came at exactly the right time for us,” said Jansen.
First published in the Mornington News – 19 May 2026
