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.
Last chance effort to protect a fierce but fragile icon species
The Spot-tailed Quoll – also known as the Tiger Quoll – is one of Australia’s most extraordinary predators. Yet despite its ecological importance, this fierce, secretive marsupial is now listed as Endangered under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and Victoria’s Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.
Once widespread across Victoria, the species has suffered a dramatic decline since European settlement. Hunting, habitat loss, and predation by feral animals have reduced Spot-tailed Quoll numbers by more than 50%. Today, the Upper Snowy River region in Gippsland is the species’ last stronghold in the state – but even here, the population continues to fall.
In 2024, that trajectory sparked action. A network of government and non-government organisations – including the Rendere Environmental Trust, First Nations communities, ecologists, geneticists and dedicated quoll champions – united to apply for a Victorian Government Nature Fund grant supporting a multi-agency recovery effort.
Auspiced and mentored by BioDiversity Legacy and led by Wildlife Unlimited, the Spot-tailed Quoll Recovery Program is now underway. Researchers are venturing deep into the rugged wilds of East Gippsland, gathering critical data on quoll numbers, movements and habitat needs. Their mission is clear: understand what is driving the decline, determine what it will take to halt it, and ultimately return quolls to the Country they once thrived on.
A key component of the program involves genetic assessments of both wild and captive individuals—work that will guide the development of a robust captive-breeding and translocation strategy in collaboration with Odonata’s Mt Rothwell team.
On the ground, Wildlife Unlimited field teams are trekking remote ridgelines and river valleys, deploying camera traps, studying behaviour and collecting genetic material to piece together the story of surviving quolls.
It’s painstaking work – but it’s infused with hope. Every footprint, every image, every genetic sample helps chart a path toward recovery for one of Australia’s most charismatic and imperilled species. Read more here.
The secretive quoll is investigating the hay nets used for luring the rare Rock-wallaby. Images with thanks to the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Change.
An ecological survey of rainforest communities on three Trust for Nature properties north of Foster in South Gippsland, as well as an adjacent state-run reserve, has found the largest population of Slender Tree-ferns ever documented in Australia, as well as rare and endangered species, including the Netted Brake fern, Butterfly Orchid, over 100 indigenous plants and 40 mosses.
The survey, initiated by the Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group (GTSAG) and Tarwin River Forest Land Stewards, Victoria Johnson and Stuart Inchley (BioDiversity Legacy South Gippsland biolink coordinator), was conducted by two of Victoria’s most experienced ecologists and botanists, Karl Just and Dylan Osler, with funding from the Wettenhall Environmental Trust and Friends of Turtons Creek.
An engaged community
The results of the survey were presented to an audience of over 80 people at the Foster War Memorial Arts Centre, including senior members of the Shire Council, business leaders, ecologists, botanists and residents. The presentation was also recorded (see above). Karl and Dylan talked about the importance of private land in biodiversity conservation, as many areas remain under-surveyed, compared to public lands.
“Dylan and I have both been working in ecology for over 20 years,” explained Karl.
“We get to wander around Victoria studying different ecosystems … but this [project] was quite a treat for us to do because we rarely gain access to private properties … which have an important role to play in maintaining regional biodiversity.”
Diversity is strength
The team spent more than a week exploring two distinct areas – the Turtons Creek Scenic Reserve (managed by Parks Victoria) and three adjacent Trust for Nature properties.
Walking 10 km over tough terrain, including steep, wet rainforest gullies, Karl and Dylan looked for and mapped rainforest boundaries, threatened species and created a list of observed flora.
Given the high rainfall in the area, ferns grow aplenty, but it was the diversity of the fern population that surprised them.
“You almost get these mini-ecosystems, with lots of different fern species growing on trees and branches – trees on trees. It’s kind of magical,” said Karl.
Geological features of the study area, including the presence of fault lines and unique sedimentary layers, contribute to the diverse ecosystems within the rainforest.
Understanding these geological factors is essential for effective conservation planning, said Karl, as they influence vegetation patterns and habitat characteristics. He also noted how Cool Temperate Rainforest is highly sensitive to fire, with historical data indicating that it takes over 400 years for these ecosystems to recover. This long recovery period necessitates proactive fire management strategies to prevent devastating impacts on these vulnerable environments.
The survey also acknowledged the presence of invasive species such as blackberries, which can alter soil chemistry and microclimates, threatening the integrity of rainforest ecosystems. Additionally, evidence of deer populations was noted, which can contribute to vegetation degradation through browsing and trampling, necessitating ongoing management efforts.
To ensure the long-term health of Cool Temperature Rainforest, the survey recommends implementing protective buffers around rainforest areas, particularly near adjacent timber harvesting operations. Such buffers can mitigate risks from wind throw, herbicide drift, and invasive species, thereby supporting the resilience of these ecosystems.
The survey results underscore the beauty and importance of this landscape, while also raising awareness of the ongoing threats to its preservation.
Wildlife Unlimited, in partnership with local landholders and mentored by BioDiversity Legacy, is leading the Helping Hands for the Sheoak project – an ambitious effort to restore stands of Sheoaks (Allocasuarina littoralis) on private land across East Gippsland.
These plantings aim to increase the availability of feed trees for the nationally endangered Glossy Black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami), a species that depends almost exclusively on Sheoak seeds for food.
Supported by the Natural Resource Conservation Trust (NRCT) and the Rendere Environmental Trust, the project brings together an active network of collaborators, including local landholders, the Far East Victoria Landcare Group (FEVL), Moogji Aboriginal Council and the Friends of Mallacoota.
A closer look at the project
In May 2025, BioDiversity Legacy’s Community & Stewardship Manager, Robyn Edwards, visited two participating properties and toured the Moogji Aboriginal Council Nursery, where Sheoaks destined for future Glossy Black-cockatoo habitat are being carefully propagated.
Sheoaks are remarkable, drought-tolerant trees with fine, needle-like foliage and distinctive woody cones. But they are also slow to mature; trees can take up to 10 years to produce cones containing the seeds that Glossy Black-cockatoos extract and even longer before their branches are sturdy enough to support feeding birds. Glossies are highly selective, returning year after year to particular female feed trees within a stand.
At the Moogji Nursery, Misty Anderson has been collecting seed from Sheoaks where Glossies have been observed feeding. By propagating seedlings from known feed trees, the team hopes to better understand potential genetic traits that may improve long-term revegetation success.
A highlight of the planting day in Genoa was a Glossy flying over the planting site. Photo by Peter Murrell.Misty Anderson (left), Moogji Aboriginal Council Nursery and Esther Gatnau from Wildlife Unlimited with Sheoak seedlings.Mature Sheoak tree. Photo by Robyn Gower. Helping Hands team members (l to r): Les McLean (Natural Resource Conservation Trust), Loulou Gebbie Biodiveristy Legacy, Josh Puglisi FEVL and Jim Phillipson, Rendere Environmental TrustSheoak cones. Photo by Robyn Gower.Planting day, Geroa. L (back) to r: Amelia, Fred, Esther Gatnau, Dixie Fitzclarence, Ted Dexter and Fred Jnr.
Building on earlier recovery work
This project builds on extensive Sheoak regeneration and Glossy Black-cockatoo recovery efforts undertaken by Landcare, BirdLife and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action following the 2019–20 Black Summer Bushfires. New project sites now stretch from Lakes Entrance and Marlo, across to Wangarabell and Genoa in the far east.
Community conservation in action
The project is also creating opportunities for the community to get involved. At a recent planting day on Ted Dexter’s farm in Genoa, young conservationists Freddie and Amelia – and their parents – spent the day planting and guarding Sheoaks alongside other volunteers.
“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.”
Around 10 years ago, former Melbourne schoolteacher Stuart Inchley and policymaker Victoria Johnson stumbled across a 300+ acre property for sale in the hills of South Gippsland (historically known as Land of the Lyrebird).
With a passion for conservation, sustainability and climate justice, the couple made the life-changing decision to purchase the property, place a conservation covenant on it and act on its behalf as land stewards.
It took several years for Stuart and Victoria to properly survey the property, which is characterised by dense bush, cool temperate rainforest and steep terrain, learn about local species and appreciate just how unique it is.
At first, he thought there were maybe a few dozen, but with local ecologists from Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group and elsewhere, Stuart and Victoria have now counted hundreds of individual plants. Given estimates suggesting that just 1,000 are left in Victoria, this is a major find that is attracting interest nationally and internationally.
Listen to leading Victorian ecologist, Karl Just, describe South Gippsland’s rainforests and species found within the Tarwin River Forest.
Back to reality
Unfortunately, Stuart and Victoria’s elation and finding so many Slender Tree-ferns was short-lived. Within just a few weeks, they heard chainsaws and logging activities in the property next door.
These actions, by HPV Plantations – the largest private plantation company in Australia – came within a few metres of the couple’s fenceline; too close for comfort for the ferns, which can easily be damaged by exposure to wind, rain and other elements. Stuart and Victoria felt they had no choice but to launch a campaign to stop these actions, garnering huge community support through their Gippsland Forest Guardians website (*story update – the campaign was successful!).
Partnerships for protection
With Gippsland Threatened Species Action Group (GTSAG) and other groups, Stuart and Victoria are also running campaigns to protect the last remnants of Cool Temperate Rainforest in South Gippsland, home to unique native species such as Gang-gangs, Powerful Owls, Pilotbirds, the rare and endangered Strzelecki Burrowing Crayfish and Strzelecki koala.
These rainforests, which are dominated by Myrtle Beech, Southern Sassafras, Blackwood and eucalypts with a thick understorey of tree and ground ferns, exist in high rainfall, higher altitude, fertile environments. While they can still be found across Victoria, land clearing, fire and logging have reduced the amount of these forests in Victoria to a mere 0.08% of the state’s total area and are now listed as a threatened community under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988).
In partnership with Prom Coast Ecolink and local landholders, in 2024, GTSAG received a generous grant from the Wettenhall Environment Trust to undertake a mapping survey of Cool Temperate Rainforest on Stuart and Victoria’s property and three adjoining Trust for Nature properties (totalling over 850 acres) to map the distribution of Slender Tree-ferns.
We’re all behind Stuart and Victoria and the commitment they have made to protecting the environment and building connections with the local community to raise awareness of BioDiversity Legacy and the need to strengthen local biolinks.
Through necessity, the early settlers viewed the Australian landscape through an economic lens, assessing the natural value of the land in terms of what they could extract from it.
Now, as we shift our focus to natural capital – the air, water, soil, plants and animals that essentially keep us alive – we are beginning to value more diverse landscapes. But not all get the attention they deserve.
A case in point are the muddy, mucky landscapes known as coastal saltmarsh. Despite providing an astonishing array of ecosystem services, they remain greatly undervalued. But why?
Blue carbon landscapes
Broadly defined as a mosaic of coastal ecosystems, saltmarsh is one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth, likened to kidneys or lungs in terms of its ability to filter pollution and intercept nitrogen run-off from farms.
In South Gippsland, Victoria, this lung effect can be seen from above as we look down at the 67,186-hectare site of Corner Inlet. Adjacent to Wilsons Promontory and the Nooramunga Marine and Coastal Park, Corner Inlet is one of 64 wetland areas listed as a Wetland of International Importance under Ramsar Convention.
Fringing the Inlet and the 40 plus sandy barrier islands within the inlet are some of the most floristically diverse coastal saltmarshes in the country; marshes that not only reduce farm run-off and provide a nursery for young fish, but capture and store carbon at rates 30-50 times higher than the equivalent area of soil in terrestrial forests – a process known as blue carbon.
Listen to Nooramunga Land & Sea Botanist, Karl Just, talk about key saltmarsh species.
Reframing notions of value
According to Melbourne University wetland ecologist, Paul L. Boon, Australians have always undervalued saltmarsh. He uses the folktale of Cinderella to describe how they are perceived as the ugly or poor stepsister of inland wetlands – wastelands standing between us and our desire to live on the coast and extract resources from it.
Viewed through European eyes, saltmarshes certainly ain’t pretty; in Cinderella’s words, “When they look at me, they see a mess”.
But if you look closer you can see the jewels in the landscape, like the samphire or glasswort whose jointed branches look like strings of coloured beads. Or the red seablite that mixes with the samphire to create rivers of red marsh.
A population at risk
While Corner Inlet retains 80% of its saltmarshes, a salutary lesson can be learned if we look west to Anderson Inlet, where 60% of the marshes have been lost. Or further north to Botany Bay – ironically named for its biodiversity – where losses in some areas are reported as 100%.
However, some plants within the Corner Inlet, including the iconic grey or white mangrove, are endangered. Perversely, if the saltmarshes are not managed well, the system gets out of balance and mangroves take over. So these systems need to be managed carefully.
An island of hope
In 2022, leading Victorian botanists Tim D’Ombrain and Karl Just got wind of a potential sale of Little Dog Island off the coast of Hedley within Corner Inlet.
Little Dog Island photo with thanks to Andrew Wallace.
Formerly owned by a group of developers who attempted to build an eco-resort on the island – complete with 9-hole golf course – the 62-hectare island was abandoned when the project failed. It lay idle for 14 years until Tim and Karl invited Federation University paleoecologist Professor Peter Gell, Rendere Environmental Trust Strategic Director Jim Phillipson and Carbon Landscapes co-director Dr Steve Enticott to collaborate on a new conservation project.
Together they formed a not-for-profit organisation called Nooramunga Land & Sea to hold the island in trust for future generations with provisions to enable community engagement and collective land stewardship.
The ‘saltmarsh crew’ are now repairing damage caused by the development and eradicating feral animals and weeds. They’re also investigating opportunities to secure other private properties in the area.
“We see these landscapes as ecological gems in the jewel that is Corner Inlet,” says Jim Phillipson. “They are beautiful and highly productive landscapes that support human health and wellbeing. But they are fragile and easy to disrupt. To protect them, we need to value them and promote their intrinsic value – just by being left alone.”
Like other areas within the Inlet, Little Dog Island attracts a wide range of migratory birds. It may also provide habitat for the critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrot, which feeds on plants that grow in salty or alkaline conditions, such as saltmarshes.
Expectations are high that the Parrot will be spotted on Little Dog Island, with members of the conservation crew participating in BirdLife Australia’s Winter Surveys. The crew are also exploring opportunities to secure other properties in the Inlet to build biolinks and connections for plants, animals and people.
With thanks to Professor Paul Boon, whose research on saltmarsh is published in the CSIRO journal Marine & Freshwater Research and Royal Botanic Garden Sydney journal, Cunninghami
