From the dirt road, a patch of grassland next to Truganina Cemetery in Melbourne's outer west looks like a regular paddock.
Knee-high grass rustles between old settler graves, the regional rail line and brand-new housing estates.
But Adrian Marshall from the Grassy Plains Network says if you get up close, there's a world to explore.
"I think of it like snorkelling," he said.
"You can't really see anything until you get into the middle of the grassland, until you put your head down, and suddenly you start to see all this diversity."
The 1.6 hectare grassland is home to about 57 native species, including several endangered wildflowers: the incredibly named button wrinklewort, the spiny rice flower and arching flax-lily.
In October last year, the grassland was considered so special it was excised from the cemetery and reserved as an area of ecological significance.
Works done 'in good faith' as land set for rehabilitation
But in February this year, arborists contracted by the cemetery trust drove a truck through the area as they removed tree branches, crushing flowers and compacting soil.
The tyre marks and squashed flowers were still visible when the ABC visited weeks later.
The ABC understands the contractors did not know the area was protected by a conservation management plan.
"The work was conducted in good faith as part of regular risk mitigation," a spokesperson for Greater Melbourne Cemeteries Trust (GMCT) said in a statement.
"GMCT has contacted the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) to work with them to remediate the impact of this work."
Adrian Marshall said the extent of the damage would not be clear until spring, when the flowers bloom again, but said it was "pretty concerning".
"It's like if you smashed down half the trees in the Dandenongs and said, 'Oh well, they'll grow back,'" he said.
Extinction of wildflower ecosystem on Melbourne's doorstep
The button wrinklewort is one of the most endangered plants in the state, existing in fewer than 30 known locations across Victoria, NSW and the ACT.
In a 2021 paper published in the Australian Journal of Zoology, scientists said these grasslands once covered 30 per cent of Victoria.
Roughly 1 per cent remains, with much of the rest used for agriculture or urban development, or overgrown with weeds.
RMIT University conservation scientist Sarah Bekessy said the incident showed "the contempt with which we treat our exquisite grasslands".
"A truck smashing through some of the last in-tact populations of critically endangered plants — it's like a bulldozer going through the Sistine Chapel."
After an inquiry from the ABC, a spokesperson for the Victorian government said the conservation site at the cemetery would be further protected with a fence and sign at the conservation area.
"We take any action that leads to the damage of conservation areas very seriously," they said.
Professor Bekessy said more needed to be done to shield protected areas against wilful or accidental damage and neglect.
"Unless we change something, it's going to be the classic death by a thousand cuts, and we will knowingly oversee the extinction of this whole ecosystem on the doorstep of Melbourne," she said.
Population boom poses major threat to native grasslands
Part of the challenge is the population boom in Melbourne's outer west, which is home to much of Victoria's remaining native grassland.
In 2010, the state and federal governments agreed on the Melbourne Strategic Assessment (MSA), to protect biodiversity as the city's population expands.
In 2020, an auditor-general report criticised the state government for delays in purchasing properties and found the threat of degradation posed "significant risks to the ecological values of native vegetation within the reserves".
So far, the government has secured about 18 per cent of the promised 15,000 hectare Western Grasslands Reserve between Melton and Werribee.
It is in negotiations to secure more.
The MSA has collected $216.9 million from urban development levies for conservation programs.
Professor Bekessy said one of the best things Melburnians could do for their grasslands was to go and see them.
"It does require you to put your head down and your bottom up to be able to appreciate how amazing it is," she said.
"But once you do, it's equally diverse and beautiful as a rainforest, just on a miniature scale."
