Contributed by Quoll Society of Australia
Locals from all around the Southern Downs packed into the Stanthorpe Civic Centre for the Quoll Society of Australia’s workshop on restoring threatened species habitat on July 30th. Over 80 attendees from all backgrounds came to learn about local threatened species, and signed on to take advantage of free revegetation activities offered as part of the Stepping Stones in the Southern Downs project.
Dr Rodney Appleby from BirdLife Southern Queensland spoke about the critically endangered regent honeyeater and swift parrot, two birds that call the Southern Downs home. “The regent honeyeater is so endangered that it is starting to lose its mating call, with the total national population in the low hundreds,” Dr Appleby said.
As well as offering free revegetation, workshop attendees were also encouraged to look for threatened species on their own properties, and to report sightings.
“Reporting data on threatened species is paramount,” emphasises Emily Havas from the Quoll Society. “Everyone here seems to have a quoll story, but there is only a handful of official records, which makes it hard to plan recovery strategies. If we’re going to save these species from extinction, we first need to know where they are.”
Wildlife sightings can be recorded on the iNaturalist phone app or website, or reported directly to the Quoll Society or BirdLife Southern Queensland.
The major aim of the workshop was to recruit landholders to take part in the Stepping Stones revegetation project, which is funded by the Australian Government’s Environment Restoration Fund.
Paul Revie, an ecologist and zoologist from the Quoll Society, was ecstatic at the enthusiastic response to the project. “We’ve had at least 20 attendees from the workshop sign up for revegetation, which is ultimately going to have huge benefits for local wildlife,” Mr Revie said.
Broadwater resident Shelley Trevaskis is looking forward to having the degraded creek on her property revegetated. “We’ve been wanting to plant along the creek to stop erosion, improve water quality and provide wildlife habitat, but it’s hard to find the time and resources,” Ms Trevaskis said. “We couldn’t wait to sign up and are really excited about the Stepping Stones project.”
It’s not too late for interested landholders to be part of the project. If you want to get involved, contact the Quoll Society of Australia at info@quollsa.org.
