4 October 2007
Bandicoot recovery effort wins
further funding
Two new grants will further boost the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve Foundation's collaborative efforts to save the Southern Brown Bandicoot in the Port Phillip and Western Port region.
The grants, which are funded under Round 9 of the Australian Government Envirofund, were announced on 2 October 2007. They follow two WWF Threatened Species Network Community Grants for complementary projects, which were announced in September 2007.
The Mornington Peninsula and Western Port Biosphere Reserve Foundation has been awarded a grant of $16,091 to develop and enhance wildlife corridors across the Koo Wee Rup region, connecting small, remnant populations of the Southern Brown Bandicoot.
Sites have been selected for weed control and revegetation with 3,000 indigenous plants. The plantings, consisting mainly of grasses and sedges, will be protected by 1.9 kilometres of new fencing. Innovative, experimental shelters will be constructed to provide bandicoots with refuge from predators, such as foxes. Project outcomes will be measured through a bandicoot population monitoring program established by the biosphere reserve foundation and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
Project partners include Western Port Swamp Landcare; private landholders, including G&J Dunkley and L&T English; Melbourne Water; VicTrack's rail line manager, V-Line; and Bayles Regional Primary School. The support of the two councils, City of Casey and Cardinia Shire, is an important part of this project.
Meanwhile, the Cardinia Environment Coalition has been awarded $45,000 to protect and enhance the habitat of the Southern Brown Bandicoot through the creation of a biolink over 10 properties. Activities will include weed and fox control, planting 5,750 indigenous plants, direct seeding, erecting 4.2 kilometres of protective fencing, and community education through field and open days. Outcomes will be measured through the success of fox control measures and the interest shown from landholders attending the demonstration sites.
The two new projects will complement three existing Southern Brown Bandicoot projects:
- A biosphere reserve foundation project to improve bandicoot habitat at The Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve at Frankston, funded under Envirofund Round 8 in October 2006. The Pines population is the only definitively-known Southern Brown Bandicoot population remaining on the Mornington Peninsula.
- A biosphere reserve foundation project in the northern Western Port region, funded under Round 10 of the WWF Threatened Species Network Community Grants Program in September 2007. The project aims to expand existing bandicoot populations in the region by establishing management strategies to ensure continuity of effort, reducing fox predation, and extending habitat with understorey plantings. Under scientific supervision, local volunteers will monitor the distribution and abundance of bandicoots. Community awareness programs will be an integral part of the project, engaging the northern Western Port community, from Cranbourne to Bayles.
- A Cardinia Environment Coalition (CEC) project at Bayles, also funded under Round 10 of the WWF Threatened Species Network Community Grants Program in September 2007. The project aims to protect and enhance Bandicoot Corner, a core area of bandicoot habitat managed by the CEC. Activities will include habitat restoration; predator control, including a fox-baiting program; and community engagement through the development of educational and interpretive facilities and field days for the community.
All projects form part of a broader recovery plan for the Southern Brown Bandicoot across the biosphere reserve, which complements recovery efforts in New South Wales and South Australia (see below).
Background
The Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus obesulus) is listed as an endangered species nationally and a threatened species in three mainland states.
Until the 1970s, the species was common in the heathy woodlands that occurred in the Melbourne and Western Port region, including the Seaford-Frankston and Cranbourne-Langwarrin areas, and parts of the Koo Wee Rup, Cardinia and Bass Coast regions.
Today, the species is now restricted to only one relatively secure site, the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne. Here, strategic management of a 250-hectare patch of remnant vegetation provides suitable habitat for the species. However, even this population is still relatively small, with limited genetic diversity, and potentially vulnerable to fire and disease.
Elsewhere, only isolated patches of habitat remain, with none or just a few surviving bandicoots. The conservation of these fragmented populations, on land managed by many private landholders and public agencies, poses a significant challenge.
The biosphere reserve foundation adopted the recovery of the Southern Brown Bandicoot as a flagship project in order to raise community awareness of declining biodiversity and the need to live more sustainably.
In collaboration with other organisations, the foundation's research committee has established a Southern Brown Bandicoot recovery team.
A recovery plan has been developed specifically for the Mornington Peninsula and Western Port region, based on national and state recovery plans. It identifies the need for work in three major areas:
- Immediate on-ground actions to protect existing biodiversity.
- Inventory, survey, baseline and research studies to provide a scientific basis for management.
- A community education program.
The foundation held a public meeting in November 2006 to consider how best to implement a conservation program. A report on the proceedings will be available soon.