Stop Beating Around the Bush is a free exhibition at the World Trade Centre gallery in Melbourne until September 29 showcasing work by emerging and established artists.

Environmental campaigners Friends of Leadbeater's Possum are staging the event to raise money to restore habitat around Healesville, Marysville and Warburton devastated by the Black Saturday bushfires.

Friends president Sera Blair said money raised from the sale of donated artworks would be spent on planting trees, building nesting boxes and running conservation campaigns, research and education programs.

"We're now at a turning point - there are just 1000 or so Leadbeater's Possums left in Australia, all of them here in Victoria. It's vital we join forces to help save their habitat. The Black Saturday bushfires wiped out much of the last remaining habitat in the Central Highlands."

Since the fires, much of what survived has been clear-felled as loggers salvaged what they could for useful timber.

Stop Beating Around the Bush opens on September 7, World Endangered Species Day. Details: www.wtcwharf.com. au, 96299228.