Page 3282 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 23 August 2017
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south east of New South Wales. The brochure produced on the area describes the nature reserves as containing a diverse mosaic of grassland, woodland and forest habitats, each supporting a characteristic collection of native plants and animals. The decision to incorporate Goorooyarroo within the nature reserve system came at a cost of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of otherwise developable land, and so it is important that the area is used to maximum research potential.
The Woodlands and Wetlands Trust was established to ensure that the Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary together with the Jerrabomberra wetlands are managed to provide rich and diverse environments for current and future generations. The trust has strong governance with a wide range of highly qualified people, and I echo Ms Orr’s acknowledgement of the remarkable work they do.
I have had the pleasure of visiting the Jerrabomberra wetlands on several occasions and I had already made arrangements to visit the Mulligans Flat area next week before this motion was lodged. I am looking forward to the evening tour next Monday. I am particularly interested to learn more about the eastern bettong research. So successful has this research project been that there are calls to make the bettong the ACT’s fauna emblem. Whether this is intended as a replacement of the gang-gang cockatoo or as an addition I do not know, but I do know there certainly has been a big push in social media circles.
It is a wonderful story, given that the bettong was extinct in the ACT and, in fact, on mainland Australia for 50 years prior to its reintroduction into Mulligans Flat. Research of the woodlands area was started in 2004. The project’s aims were to conserve remaining areas of native temperate woodlands and to understand ways of restoring the structure and function of temperate woodlands to increase biodiversity. In late 2008 construction began on a 12-kilometre long fence to exclude foxes, dogs and cats from a 480-hectare area. This was the catalyst for the return of the endangered eastern bettong.
We owe a deal of gratitude to whomever the skilful negotiator was who convinced authorities in Tasmania to allow the first bettongs to come here. A report in 2009 on the ACT lowland native grasslands by the then Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, Dr Maxine Cooper, identified that only five per cent of the natural temperate grassland that existed in the ACT before European settlement remains. Nationally this figure is less at around one per cent. The lowland grassland remnants that are left in the ACT are small, with only 11 sites over 100 hectares in area, so the work of the Woodland and Wetlands Trust is important.
During estimates it was reported that there are now over 200 eastern bettongs free ranging in Mulligans Flat, and it is only because of the predator-proof fence that their reintroduction has been such a success. We were told that most reintroductions fail, with the failure rate at about 60 per cent.
Quolls are also part of the reintroduction, even though they are prone to climb the fence. But, again, during estimates we were told that people in Gungahlin will call the rangers to advise them when they find a quoll in their garden so it can be returned to the sanctuary, another example of the positive human interaction for the benefit of our environment.
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