BioDiversity Legacy (BDL) is engaging with a growing number of landholders on the Far South Coast of New South Wales who are interested in exploring how BDL’s land protection pathways can not only safeguard individual properties but help communities connect their landscapes and expand their conservation ambitions.
In October, BDL Communities & Stewardship Manager, Robyn Edwards, visited a remarkable 27-ha property adjoining Tilba Tilba Lake in the Gulaga/Eurobodalla region that has been lovingly restored over the past 45 years by members of the Tilba Lake Community (TLC).
The property, once cleared and degraded, has been transformed into a thriving haven for biodiversity, with over 200 bird species recorded, a healthy Diamond Python population, returning Long-nosed Bandicoots and nationally endangered species, including the Glossy Black-Cockatoo and Hooded Plover.
During the visit, Robyn joined Local Land Services NSW and TLC members Geoff Pryor, Noel Pratt, Dr Liz Dennis and her son, Dr Clancy Dennis, in a wide-ranging conversation about the property’s natural and cultural values, land transition pathways and the Biosphere Region proposal originally developed by the Tilba Environment Landcare Group as part of the Tilba Chamber of Commerce strategy review in the wake of the 2019–20 bushfires.
“A big part of our role at BioDiversity Legacy is guiding communities through a progression – from connection and learning to agency, active hope and, ultimately, positive, lasting conservation pathways,” says Robyn.
“It was inspiring to meet the landholders, learn about the Yuin people’s connection to Country and see how the Tilba property has been brought back to life. We’ll do what we can to support this group and the wider community to pursue their landscape vision.”
Photo right: Shareholders of the Tilba Lake Community Pty Ltd property enjoyed conversations with BioDiversity Legacy’s Robyn Edwards. Left to right: Noel and Geoff Pryor, Robyn Edwards, Liz Dennis and son Clancy.
In October, BioDiversity Legacy joined landholders, Traditional Owners, scientists, and conservation organisations from around the country at the 2025 Australian Land Conservation Alliance Conference, held in Gimuy (Cairns).
The conference theme – Scaling Up: Local Action for Global Solutions – echoed what drives our work at BioDiversity Legacy every day: empowering and facilitating landholders and communities to protect the land they love – from early steps in land stewardship to formal and lasting protection.
Shared purpose and momentum
The Australian Land Conservation Alliance (ALCA) is the national peak body for organisations working in private land conservation, bringing together people who are actively restoring and safeguarding nature on privately managed land. This year’s event created a powerful space for sharing knowledge, building partnerships and exploring innovative models for long-term protection.
BioDiversity Legacy was proud to be announced as one of ALCA’s newest member organisations, alongside the National Landcare Network – a milestone that reflects our growing role in this national movement (see the full list of ALCA members here).
Contributing to the conversation
BioDiversity Legacy staff were delighted to play an active role in the Land Conservation Forum for Landholders on Tuesday, 7 October, with our Head of Conservation Engagement & Partnerships, Dixie Fitzclarence, co-presenting a session with Andrew and Angus Cleary from Nuggan Sanctuary, who shared their family’s inspiring conservation journey and their work to secure lasting protection for their land.
BioDiversity Legacy’s Far North Queensland Biolink Coordinator, Keith Smith (who is also involved in Queensland’s Private Protected Area Program), participated in the Ask an Expert session, offering insights into land management and conservation practices.
Inspired for what’s next
Says Dixie: “The week was filled with insight and connection. MC Sean Dooley kept spirits high and Peter Garrett’s closing remarks left the room energised for the road ahead. We left Cairns inspired and looking forward to reconnecting with everyone in Lutruwita/Tasmania next October for ALCA26 and in Naarm/Melbourne for the 2027 International Land Conservation Network Global Congress.”
Next generation conservationists are getting involved in efforts to save the nationally threatened Glossy Black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) in Gippsland by participating in the Helping Hands for Sheoak project.
Freddie, Amelia and their parent (images below) recently joined a community planting day on Ted Dexter’s farm in Genoa, working hard all day to plant and guard Sheoaks to help save the Glossy.
“It is very inspiring when the younger generation turns up to help at a planting day,” said BioDiversity Legacy’s Head of Conservation Engagement & Partnerships, Dixie Fitzclarence. “It provides a measure of hope for the future.”
Expanding stands of Black Sheoaks (Allocasuarina littoralis) through strategic revegetation of seedlings is an important recovery action for the nationally threatened Glossies, whose habitat was severely impacted in the 2019/20 bushfires, explained Dixie.
The Glossies feed almost exclusively on the seed cones of Allocasuarina species and, in eastern Victoria, Black Sheoaks are the predominant feed tree species. Many stands were burnt during the fires.
Photos. Top: Biodiversity Legacy Partnership & Grants Manager, Robyn Edwards, with Amelia. Above left: Helping Hands for Sheoak planting team from left –(back) Amelia, Fred, Esther Gatnau, Dixie Fitzclarence, Ted Dexter and Fred Jnr. Above right: A highlight of the planting day was a Glossy flying over the planting site. Photo: Peter Murrell.
Sheoaks can take up to 10 years to produce cones and even longer to grow branches thick enough to support the weight of Glossies feeding on them.
The Helping Hand for Sheoaks project, which is supported by the Natural Resource Conservation Trust (NRCT) and led by the Bairnsdale-based not-for-profit environmental consultancy, Wildlife Unlimited, is revegetating stands of Sheoaks on private land, building on Landcare, Birdlife and Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action recovery works undertaken as part of the Black Summer bushfire response.
The planting is purposefully designed to connect State Forest with a protected covenanted forest, a priority habitat area.
“This project is a powerful investment into the future of the Glossy-black Cockatoo population in eastern Victoria as well as for the next generation, so that they too can enjoy and reap the biodiversity benefits of these types of revegetation projects,” added Dixie.
Project sites range from Lakes Entrance and Marlo through to Wangarabell and Genoa.
Wildlife Unlimited project lead, Esther Gatnau, said the community was getting behind the project.
“There are many helping hands for this project. Project partners include landholders, Far East Victoria Landcare Group, Sailors Grave Brewery, Moogji Aboriginal Council, East Gippsland Rail Trail, Friends of Mallacoota, BioDiversity Legacy and Rendere Environmental Trust,” said Esther.
Connecting efforts to restore South Coast ecosystems
BioDiversity Legacy (BDL) continues to build networks and engage with conservation communities on the Far South Coast of NSW from Eden to Tathra, Bermagui to Moruya, and beyond. It may be one of the most beautiful regions in Australia, but the Far South Coast faces numerous threats to its biodiversity, from habitat loss to logging, agricultural activities, invasive species and bushfires.
In June, BDL’s Head of Conservation Engagement & Partnerships, Dixie Fitzclarence, and Community & Stewardship Manager, Robyn Edwards, headed to the small town of Towamba, near Bega, to meet the community and participate in a workshop aimed at helping them identify critically endangered Threatened Ecological Communities (TEC) within the River Flat Eucalypt Forest.
The event, coordinated by the Towamba Valley Landcare Group in association with the Far South Coast Conservation Management Network, involved presentations by Jackie Miles, a highly knowledgeable local botanist who explained the main diagnostic features of the TEC, South East Local Land Services Officer, and Annie Hobby, who provided an update on the status, range and distribution of this TEC and what communities can do to restore these ecosystems.
Dixie talked about BDL’s role supporting landholders, community groups, environmental organisations and others to protect the land they love for future generations. Robyn’s talk focused on BDL-supported work with Wildlife Unlimited to protect threatened species, including the Spot-tailed Quoll and Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby, as well as plans to extend this work to protect native species across a broad region, from Victoria to the South Coast.
“It was an inspiring day, connecting with landholders who are undertaking protection and restoration activities on their property or in the local landscape, and to share with the community the role BDL has to play in permanent protection through facilitating community ownership of significant biodiverse areas,” said Robyn.
The event was supported by the Australian Government Natural Heritage Trust and the Saving Native Species Program delivered by South East Local Land Services, a member of the Commonwealth Regional Delivery Partners panel.
Landholders and nature lovers across South Gippsland Victoria are being encouraged to contribute to a biolink map being developed by the South Gippsland Landcare Network (SGLN) to give landholders and the broader community a bird’s eye view of the ‘patches, stepping stones and habitat links’ that need to be strengthened to create more effective wildlife corridors and protect native and threatened species.
The map is a key action of the SGLN’s 10-year Biodiversity Protection Plan developed in 2024 with cross-sector input, including from our Ecolands Collective colleagues, Prom Coast Ecolink, which sits under the umbrella of the SGLG, and the Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group, which aims to connect remnant patches of native vegetation, initially across the Bass Coast and now extending eastwards to South Gippsland.
Conservation action across this vast 262,000 ha region, which stretches from the steep Strzelecki Ranges in the north to the lowland coast in the south, is becoming increasingly urgent as just 22% of South Gippsland’s native vegetation remains, and 10% of all native species are now threatened.
After securing funding for two key phases of the mapping project, SGLN appointed mapping experts who, as a first step, are gathering base data via a ‘Habitat Near You’ website that asks landholders and community members to identify habitat hotspots, sightings of key species and key areas of interest (this phase will run from May to June 2025, so please contribute if you can).
Biodiversity Legacy South Gippsland Biolink Coordinator, and local community member, Stuart Inchley, will contribute data about remnant patches of vegetation north of Foster and contribute in other ways.
It will take about nine months to gather the foundational data. From here, the team will use the General Approach to Planning Connectivity from Local Scales to Regional (GAPCLoSR) GIS method to analyse landscape conditions and determine the best possible pathways for recreating or enhancing habitat for 4-6 target species.
The whole process will take a community-led, tenure blind approach and consider all environments across the region, not just those where larger patches of bushland exist.
BioDiversity Legacy welcomes this biolinking initiative, which reflects our long connection to the region and our commitment to engaging property owners and communities in conversations about the need to secure land and connect it to adjacent properties and/or state and national parks.
The map will also provide a well-informed basis for regional planning processes and inspire more investment in the natural values of our landscape.
The following editorial, published by the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN) in March 2025, is by LCV president Peter Mulherin and Australian Land Conservation Alliance Permanent Protection Method Project Manager, Cecilia Riebl, who also acts as Australia’s ILCN Regional Representative
BioDiversity Legacy (BDL) is proud to maintain strong ties with Land Covenantors Victoria (LCV), an organisation energising the private land conservation movement across Victoria and bringing communities together to take meaningful action.
Established in 2021 with support from the Rendere Environmental Trust, EcoLands Collective and Trust for Nature, LCV is the first formal network to unite landholders who have adopted conservation covenants and other on-title agreements to protect biodiversity on their properties.
“We are living in a time of great challenge, with biodiversity loss, global warming, political instability and the relentless advance of extractive industries compounding these threats,” said LCV President Peter Mulherin.
“It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. However, by empowering private landowners to take meaningful action within their own communities, we can restore a sense of control and optimism.”
LCV members play an active role in advocating for policy reform. Their efforts include successfully securing automatic land-tax exemptions for landholders with Trust for Nature covenants—an important recognition of the public environmental value these protected areas provide.
More broadly, LCV brings together people and organisations with diverse levels of experience and expertise to exchange ideas, share success stories and support peer-based learning.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of this work is being part of a local network of landholders—feeling connected to a community of like-minded individuals making tangible changes to benefit local biodiversity and future generations,” Peter said.
LCV hosts field days and events on properties across the state. In one recent event in Gippsland, Landcare representatives, Trust for Nature, philanthropists, farmers and local politicians gathered in a town hall to hear case studies showcasing conservation initiatives led primarily by volunteers and local landholders. The photo above shows participants at LCV’s first field day, held at Wirra-lo, a 180-hectare private property in Murrabit.
Peter also acknowledges the challenges these organisations face in caring for nature on behalf of the broader community. “Their work provides immense social and environmental benefits, with no financial reward but enduring value for their communities,” he said.
By fostering collaboration and raising awareness about the importance of conservation covenants, LCV is making real progress toward its long-term vision: a future in which private land conservation is the norm, not the exception.
A biodiversity legacy for Victoria’s southeast coast
The Nature Recovery Foundation (NRF) is a bold initiative committed to reversing biodiversity decline on Victoria’s Bass Coast and protecting the natural environment for future generations. The NRF is a partnership between Bass Coast Shire and BioDiversity Legacy, with each organisation having two directors on the board.
The Foundation’s initial focus is on tracts of land within the Bass Coast Shire, where existing habitats will be protected and larger-scale landscape restoration will be pursued. As the Foundation grows, there may be opportunities to expand our impact beyond this region, most likely into South Gippsland.
The NRF is currently working towards Deductible Gift Recipient status, which will strengthen the Foundation’s legitimacy and open opportunities for tax-deductible donations, further supporting our long-term goals.
The Foundation’s Mission
To achieve lasting environmental restoration, the NRF will:
Protect priority areas of remnant biodiversity.
Secure and restore land with high ecological potential.
Create viable habitat refuges connected through biolinks.
Leverage partnerships and green investment for long-term sustainability.
Build a lasting legacy for future generations.
Next steps
This is an exciting step for BioDiversity Legacy, as several members of the team live in the adjacent shire of South Gippsland and, as a group, we have deep links to other environmental non-profits via our connection to the Ecolands Collective.
