Vic:Olivia and Lee Kernaghan join forces for National Tree Day

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Vic:Olivia and Lee Kernaghan join forces for National Tree Day

By Susan Murdoch

MELBOURNE, April 8 AAP - A former rubbish tip in Melbourne's western suburbs seemedan unlikely place for singing stars Olivia Newtown-John and Lee Kernaghan to get togethertoday.

But thanks to revegetation, including the planting of more than 2,500 trees last yearfor Planet Ark's National Tree Day, Kernaghan's trademark ten-gallon hat looked rightat home.

As the public faces of National Tree Day, Newtown-John and Kernaghan today urged volunteersto help plant another one million trees across Australia on Sunday, July 28.

Last year, 110,000 volunteers planted a record 1.2 million trees, offsetting emissionsof up to 50,000 cars.

Tree planting at Newport Lakes also helped turn the former quarry and landfill dumpinto a recreation reserve.

"When you come to places like this you realise the possibilities," Newtown-John toldtoday's National Tree Day launch.

"Places that have lost so much to soil erosion can be planted to look like this."

The 53-year-old singer and actress said a recent trip to Tasmania's Styx River Valleyhad inspired her to become more involved in the plight of old-growth forests and the re-plantingof native trees.

"When you walk around those old-growth trees, it is so touching, it's such an incredibleexperience," she said.

"It's like being in a church, so beautiful, so much birdsong, you can't imagine someonecould come in and erase it."

Kernaghan said he was glad to be back in Australia after a recent trip to Los Angeles'concrete jungle.

"LA's an experience about the way things shouldn't be," Kernaghan said.

"Then at the other end of spectrum is getting off the plane at Launceston (Tasmania),stepping down off those steps and it's like pure oxygen."

While reluctant to get political on the matter, Newton-John urged the government toput a stop to the logging of old-growth forests.

"I'm a non-political animal," she said.

"I'd just like to find a solution ... to sit down with the loggers and the government.

"With eco-tourism we can create jobs not lose jobs. I'm not saying we should get ridof logging, there will always be logging - we're always going to need wood.

"But we have enough plantation forest to last us."

AAP svm/gfr/las

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