Flinders Island has been privately owned by the Woolford Family since the 1970s, initially operating as a sheep station until the mid-2000s. Since then, destocking has been underway as the family transitioned to nature-based tourism enterprises. In line with this shift the family approached the South Australian Department for Environment and Water with the idea of converting the island to a Safe Haven.

This project represents a major public-private conservation partnership for South Australia. The Woolford’s are passionate stewards of the island and in partnership with National Parks and Wildlife Service, eradication experts, and the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board brought the necessary experience and expertise together to help give the best chance of project success.

The island’s size, remoteness, and mild climate with reliable rainfall made it ideal for establishing a Safe Haven. Feral cattle, sheep, mice, rats and cats were the target species for eradication. The project’s aim was to maximize the island’s restoration capacity and ultimately contribute to the national Haven network. Fossil records show that animals such as the Western Quoll and Banded Hare-wallaby were once present, but no native terrestrial mammals remain. These animals are now threatened species.

A fully integrated eradication plan was developed over 2022-2024 and $4.8 million was secured from the Australian Government Saving Native Species Program and SA Government Landscape Priority Fund.
The removal and eradication of sheep and feral cattle, and the aerial baiting operations targeting mice, rat and cats were completed in mid-2025, with the feral cat eradication effort being completed by December 2025. A key project component was a range of baseline monitoring, including pre-operation cat population estimates to assess the impact of the rodent baiting and a single 1080 aerial bait drop.

This was the first attempt of a multiple species island eradication in South Australia.

Periodic flooding is a natural, intrinsic phenomenon of floodplain ecosystems. The 2022-23 Murray River flood was the largest flood event in almost 70 years, inundating vast areas of floodplain on Calperum Station, SA. This area supports a depauperate vertebrate fauna community and is the site of various restoration activities, including the addition of woody debris to restore the degraded soil, plant and animal communities. This study aimed to investigate the impact of woody debris addition and subsequent major flooding on the small mammal and reptile community. We surveyed the terrestrial fauna community, vegetation and groundcover, pre- and two years post-flood, with and without pre-flood woody debris addition. We found that the abundance and diversity of the terrestrial fauna community had not recovered two years after the flood and the presence of woody debris did not affect recovery. The two most common species in pre-flood surveys, the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata) and Tessellated Gecko (Diplodactylus tesselatus) showed major declines post-flood, with dunnarts undetectable in surveys. Prior to floods, dunnarts were associated with areas of less bare ground, and post-flood, bare ground was increased across all sites potentially reducing the suitability of this habitat. Possible mechanisms of flood avoidance or survival are unknown, raising many questions about the ability of small terrestrial fauna to not only escape major flooding events but to recolonise previously suitable habitat.

Insects are critical for ecosystem function and services in livestock agroecosystems. However, understanding of insect community responses to land management strategies is limited, particularly in Australia, partly due to lack of ecological monitoring programs on private land. In this research, we aimed to understand how the use of livestock grazing on conservation land affects the insect communities and further, how that relates to habitat structure. We used four standard insect collection techniques to sample the general insect diversity on private conservation land with and without the use of livestock grazing as well as public conservation land without livestock grazing. We found significant differences in insect community composition, abundance and diversity between land management strategies. Notably, we observed greater insect species richness and abundance of pollinators on grazed private conservation land. These findings suggest that the land management of private conservation land could be valuable in insect conservation and biodiversity monitoring.

Ecological refuges play a key role in the persistence of many animal species in the arid zone whose populations fluctuate in response to highly variable rainfall and hence resource availability. These refuges support species during dry periods and may then act as source populations for irruptions when environmental conditions become favourable again. Species differ in their habitat requirements, so identification of refuges is challenging since any area has the potential to act as a refuge for a given species at a given time. However, locations that maintain relatively high and stable primary productivity, termed ‘greenspots’, likely have a greater capacity to support a wide range of species during extreme climatic conditions. This study, based in Mutawintji National Park in western New South Wales, seeks to understand the role of primary productivity or ‘greenness’ as identified from satellite imagery, in providing refuges for terrestrial vertebrates in a semi-arid environment. If greenspots are acting as multispecies refuges from drought conditions, then differences in biodiversity between greenspots and lower productivity areas are expected to be most pronounced during dry periods but may not persist during wet periods. Through the use of ongoing camera surveys, this study aims to explore how the relationship between biodiversity metrics and greenness varies across different climatic conditions. Preliminary results from late spring to early summer in 2024, during a period of high rainfall, suggests little relationship between the level of persistent greenness and biodiversity. As climatic conditions become increasingly unpredictable under climate change, understanding the dynamic nature of refuges will be important for the future conservation of many arid zone species.

Understanding the effects of landscape management in arid ecosystems is challenging due to extreme variability, largely driven by rainfall. Witchelina Nature Reserve, in one of Australia’s driest regions, has been managed by Nature Foundation since 2010 with a focus on reducing grazing pressure. Twice-annual bird surveys conducted by Birds SA over 14 years provide insight into ecosystem responses.
Rainfall during this period has been highly erratic, with major boom years in 2010–2011 and again in 2022. Peaks in bird diversity aligned with these high rainfall years, yet there has been no clear long-term trend in overall bird diversity. Despite this, species-level patterns reveal meaningful differences between boom events.
The 2010–2012 boom followed shortly after the Reserve’s acquisition and was dominated by waterbirds, likely reflecting national-scale increases linked to widespread rainfall. In contrast, the 2022 boom—after a decade of active management—saw marked increases in granivores (e.g., Zebra Finch, Mulga Parrot) and slight increases in insectivores, while waterbird numbers remained low despite full wetlands.
Management-driven reductions in grazing pressure likely contributed to improved ground cover, benefiting seed-eating species during the 2022 boom. Meanwhile, waterbird numbers appear more closely tied to broader climatic trends, and thus less responsive to local management.
This long-term dataset highlights the value of sustained monitoring in helping to disentangle natural variability from management outcomes. It also underscores the potential for targeted actions, like reducing grazing, to enhance biodiversity outcomes even in highly variable environments.

The Coolabah / Black Box (C/BB) woodlands of New South Wales (NSW) are host to various ecologically significant endangered species and plant communities. However, these woodlands are underrepresented in the reserve system and are subject to prolonged disturbance from agricultural activities such as grazing, cultivation and clearing. Restoration activities in these communities have had mixed success, with some large-scale failures, and lack comprehensive scientific literature to guide the development of novel methodologies and address site specific challenges. Our project aims to investigate ecosystem restoration in these systems and develop methodologies and tools to improve efficiency, economic viability and effectiveness of restoration efforts through three phases of work.
Phase 1: Systematic literature review identifying ecosystem dynamics pathways degraded by grazing. Statistical ecological condition and land use history survey to characterise condition states of the target plant communities. Phase 2: Theoretical ecosystem dynamics model describing degradation pathways between ecologically resilient and alternative and or stable degraded states. Literature review of restoration ecology methodologies in the global literature linking to processes identified in our theoretical model. Phase 3: Develop statistical model of the plant communities to identify degraded ecosystem dynamics pathways and assess efficacy of restoration actions.
Initial pre-publication findings indicate both a limited extent and inconsistent methodologies for assessing managed grazing impacts on ecosystem condition and resilience in semi-arid woodlands in the literature. The literature indicates ecosystem response to managed grazing is nuanced, linking to changes in community structure, composition and richness. These findings will be compared against NSW C/BB communities using site survey data and landholder land use questionnaires.
The findings of the project, conducted in partnership with the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT), will be directly applied to BCT’s statewide private land conservation programs, as well as guide future management of the C/BB woodlands and other semi-arid/floodplain woodland communities.

In urban and peri-urban landscapes, riparian vegetation can be degraded by land clearing, altered hydrological regimes and other anthropogenic impacts. Habitat restoration and revegetation has the potential to restore these degraded areas and increase native plant and animal communities. Revegetating terrestrial species along riparian habitats can also provide vital ecosystem services such as flow regulation, water filtration and nutrient and organic matter cycling. Monitoring revegetation cover and condition is vital to inform management actions and adaptively manage restoration outcomes. Since 2022, Melbourne Water have been monitoring revegetation along waterways to assess the restoration outcomes using the Restoration Outcomes Monitoring Protocol (ROMP). Here we discuss the outcomes of the ROMP monitoring in assessing the effectiveness of Melbourne Waters revegetation activities in comparison to existing reference (remnant) habitat. Our results will show how revegetation survival changes between years, and how vegetation composition in revegetated areas compares to reference areas after three years. It will also show how faunal species (birds) are responding to these restored areas and outline management actions that may benefit revegetation effectiveness.

Habitat fragmentation is a key threat to biodiversity, breaking up once-connected ecosystems into small, isolated patches. In agricultural regions, this often results in landscapes dominated by scattered remnant vegetation and isolated paddock trees. Despite their prevalence, there is still much to learn about the ecological roles these trees and small patches play in modern, human-modified environments.

This honours project investigates whether isolated paddock trees and small vegetation remnants experience different levels of herbivory and pathogen infection compared to larger, more intact woodland patches. The aim is to understand how ecological isolation influences plant–enemy interactions and whether these scattered vegetation elements continue to support key biotic processes.

Fieldwork was conducted across four regions in New South Wales. At each site, three vegetation patch types were surveyed: isolated paddock trees, small remnants, and nearby large remnant patches. The study focused primarily on Eucalyptus species, other native taxa included where present. Herbivory was estimated visually, with training via the ZAX Herbivory Training App. Pathogen presence, particularly Austropuccinia psidii (myrtle rust), was assessed through visual inspection.

Preliminary findings suggest that herbivory in Eucalyptus species increases with distance from large remnants, while smaller tree species showed no consistent pattern. These species were less common in paddocks, likely reflecting historical clearing that retained only the largest trees. Myrtle rust infection did not vary significantly between patch types, though tree species identity strongly influenced infection rates. In the Yass region, one species showed widespread dieback and rust infection.

These results shed light on how isolation influences plant-enemy interactions and highlight the importance of scattered vegetation in supporting biodiversity and guiding conservation in agricultural landscapes.

Heavy metal contamination from human activities such as mining has widespread effects on global ecosystems, human and environmental health. Managing heavy metal pollution is very challenging, expensive and time costly. Current practices such as chemical stabilisation and soil cleaning are often ineffective. Some plants provide an effective solution. Species that accumulate metals at high levels in their tissues can be used to remediate environments contaminated with heavy metals. My research asks whether we can predict which plant species are likely to accumulate high levels of metals from their traits (growth form, maximum plant height, specific leaf area and known soil microbial associations), or taxonomy. Metal bioaccumulation data for over 30 plant species (mostly native) was collected from three historical mine sites in Central New South Wales. Soil and leaf samples were dried, crushed and their elemental chemistry measured using portable X-ray fluorescence. Results are currently in progress due to the large number of samples (over 700) that need to be processed as part of my Honours research. The outcomes of this study will provide a first insight into patterns of metal accumulation across Australian plant species and introduces a potential framework to predict what plants may be effective for restoring heavy metal contaminated lands.

The importance of well-connected, intact vegetation for native wildlife is well known. However, fragmented landscapes still provide habitat for wildlife, but the minimum requirements for them to be ecologically beneficial likely depends on the species considered. Our study aimed to determine the influence of size of fragmented vegetation, and habitat condition, on detection rates of various native and introduced mammals in the Northern Jarrah Forest. We established a remote camera array in unbaited, fragmented forest habitat in farmland near Toodyay, Western Australia, stratified by remnant size and habitat quality. We also established a control group of remote cameras at adjacent intact native vegetation at Julimar State Forest, where baiting for feral predators occurs. Several key critical weight range (CWR) mammals were present at fragmented sites but were not detected at isolated paddock trees. Detection rates were higher at larger or better condition remnants, and detections were highest in intact and baited Julimar State Forest. In contrast, foxes and feral cats were commonly detected at paddock trees and small, degraded patches, and detection rates were higher across fragmented farmland than at Julimar State Forest. Our results suggest that fragmented habitat can support native CWR mammals and that predator control might be able to increase the occupancy of smaller and poorer quality habitat patches. In the absence of targeted invasive predator control, maintaining larger habitat patches and excluding domestic stock from remnants could improve occupancy and connectedness of habitat for CWR mammals. This study is part of a broader research collaboration between scientists and industry to understand how to restore and protect threatened wildlife in fragmented habitat targeted for resource extraction.

Australian mammal communities and arid ecosystems have changed significantly since European’s introduced cats, foxes and rabbits. Exclosures can provide an understanding of how mammal communities functioned prior to the introduction of invasive predators and herbivores. We examined the abundance and demography of 10 Australian desert small mammals inside and outside a 123 square km fenced reserve after the exclusion of invasive rabbits, cats and foxes over 26 years. We found evidence for a species succession response triggered by the removal of predation (endogenous disturbance) similar to the succession response found after physical vegetation removal (exogenous disturbance) caused by fire, mining or deglaciation. Succession was shaped by competition, and differences in the reinvasion timing of some species based on their susceptibility to predation by cats and foxes. Smaller rodents responded within 2 years whereas larger rodents gradually recolonised the reserve and became more abundant after 5 years, eventually outcompeting the smaller rodents. The dasyurid response was delayed and more muted, with only the stripe-faced dunnart species responding.

Using standardised capture rates we found up to 33 fold increases in native hopping mice inside the reserve compared with outside after high rainfall years, suggesting that invasive predators have a significant impact and suppress rainfall-induced population booms. Larger rodents such as the plains mouse expanded their realized niche into non-preferred dune habitat, and intraspecific competition and species diversity increased. Minimal differences in breeding, body mass or sex ratios between inside and outside the reserve suggested abundance increases were primarily due to release from predation pressure rather than increased resources. Prior to European arrival, competition would have been a significant driver of desert mammal assemblages. Our study demonstrates that invasive species do more than just reduce the abundance of small mammals, they change habitat use, competitive interactions and boom bust dynamics.

The Eight Mile Creek region on South Australia’s Lower Limestone Coast is home to a globally significant karst spring system and associated alkaline fens—ecosystems that are among the rarest in the world. These spring-fed wetlands, once extensive, have been severely degraded due to agricultural practices, artificial drainage, and over-extraction of groundwater. In 2023, the Limestone Coast Landscape Board acquired a 90-hectare property at Eight Mile Creek to initiate a comprehensive restoration project aimed at rehabilitating this critically endangered ecosystem.
The restoration project, supported by a $2.2 million investment from the Australian Government's Natural Heritage Trust, involves the re-inundation of land around the karst springs through the modification of artificial drainage systems. This approach will facilitate the return of water to the surrounding wetland areas, enhancing habitat for rare and endangered flora and fauna, improving water quality, and reducing the risk of seawater intrusion. The project is being implemented in partnership with Burrandies Aboriginal Corporation, South Eastern Water Conservation and Drainage Board, and other regional stakeholders.
This presentation will provide an overview of the Eight Mile Creek karst springs restoration project, detailing the ecological significance of the site, the restoration strategies employed, the monitoring activities being undertaken and the community engagement involved. We will discuss the challenges encountered, including the need for sustainable groundwater management and the implications of water over-allocation, as highlighted by recent concerns from local landholders. Additionally, the presentation will explore the role of First Nations partnerships in land and water management, emphasizing the integration of traditional ecological knowledge into contemporary conservation practices.
The Eight Mile Creek restoration project represents a critical step towards the conservation of one of the world's rarest wetland ecosystems. By addressing both ecological and socio-economic challenges, this initiative aims to set a precedent for future wetland restoration efforts in the region and beyond.