ICMM - International Council on Mining & Metals

CASE STUDY

Restoring Australia's arid lands

Background

Since European settlement, more than 60 per cent of the mammal species in Australia have become locally or completely extinct, while many remaining species are threatened. Ground-dwelling birds have also become locally extinct or endangered. The decline of native fauna and flora can be traced to overgrazing by rabbits and domestic stock and predation from introduced animals like the feral cat and fox. Overgrazing by domestic stock and rabbits has enormous effects on arid zone vegetation: long-lived trees and shrubs are prevented from regenerating and are being replaced by short-lived annual and weed species.

In late 1996, the Rabbit Calicivirus Disease (RCD) reached the Roxby Downs region, and rabbit numbers – which had been as high as 600 per square kilometre – plunged to less than 10 per square kilometre in a short time. Rabbits had been the most serious threat to local biodiversity through both their herbivory and the high numbers of feral predators that they supported. Rabbit population reductions through RCD provided a window of opportunity to try to eradicate both rabbits and feral predators from a defined area and work to restore the arid land. A steering committee was formed and found support in the wider community for this new project. A four-way partnership – which in 1997 became Arid Recovery – was formed by WMC Resources Ltd, the University of Adelaide, the South Australian Department for Environment & Heritage and a new group called Friends of Arid Recovery.

Aims of Arid Recovery

When Arid Recovery was established, the new partners agreed on the following as their aims:

• to facilitate ecological restoration of arid ecosystems;
  
• to provide transferable knowledge, information and technology for broad-scale environmental management of Australia’s arid lands; and
  
• to apply the principles developed to demonstrate how mining, pastoralism, tourism and conservation organisations can work together to achieve tangible benefits from sustainable ecological outcomes.

Project Coverage and Successes

The project started small, with construction of a 14 square kilometre fenced reserve. After four expansions, the protected area now covers 60 square kilometres. The next expansion will take the reserve to 86 square kilometres.

After thousands of hours of staff, student and volunteer labour, all cats, rabbits and foxes were eradicated from the entire reserve. This created an area of complete protection into which four locally extinct species were reintroduced:

• Greater Stick Nest Rat, Leporillus conditor
  
• Burrowing Bettong, Bettongia lesuer
  
• Greater Bilby, Macrotis lagotis
  
• Western Barred Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville

Each of these reintroductions was successful, and all four species are now living and breeding within the reserve. The numbers of existing native species in the fenced area have also increased, and there are now three times as many small mammals inside the reserve as there are outside. A comprehensive plant monitoring programme has also demonstrated considerable recovery of the reserve’s vegetation.

Staffing and Support

Each of the four partners provides direction and support through representation on the steering committee. The Arid Recovery Team consists of committee members and project officers. Arid Recovery supports two full-time positions (one Project Coordinator and part-time Project Officers). A scientific advisor publishes outstanding research and provides support for the Project Coordinator. WMC Resources also provides the support of an administration and publicity consultant.

Arid Recovery is rapidly becoming a centre for arid zone ecological research and regularly attracts researchers from various locations and backgrounds. Scholarship programmes are also run throughout the year, and the group is an active participant in WMC Resources’ Summer Vacation Student programme.

The project depends heavily on volunteers, both from the local community of Roxby Downs and from the wider scientific and environmental community. Each step in the creation and maintenance of the Arid Recovery Reserve would not have been possible without the thousands of hours of work donated by volunteers. In recognition of this, in November 2001 the S.A. Great Regional Award was given to the Friends of the Arid Recovery Project. The award was for Science and Environment, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the environment in South Australia.

The Work Continues

One of the goals of Arid Recovery is to serve as a demonstration site for broad-scale feral species control, so the team is constantly working to develop more effective and economical control methods. Initiatives include the development of remote telemetry-operated cat traps that are located around the outside of the reserve, participation in aerial cat baiting trials and research into more effective means of rabbit control. To improve awareness of the initiatives researched at Arid Recovery, a viewing platform and above-ground/below-ground viewing hide have been constructed within the Reserve, along with interpretive signage at the viewing platform and along a self-guided walking trail. Walking tours of the reserve, run by Friends of Arid Recovery volunteers, commenced in
2003 and are extremely popular.

Conclusions

The Arid Recovery Reserve is unique in many ways. It is the largest non-coastal area in Australia that is completely free of feral cats, rabbits and foxes, and it is surrounded by a fence that has never been breached by either cats or foxes – guaranteeing the safety of all animals within from these predators. The project is also unique in that it is specifically dedicated to arid zone conservation. Few other conservation projects target arid areas due to the low population base and inaccessibility, even though Australia’s arid zone is one of the most degraded environments in the nation.