Bushtracks Autumn 2026

At this time of year, the seasons stir and shift across the irreplaceable and diverse landscapes we protect.

In the south, moisture from cooler nights lingers, clinging to eucalypt leaves and readying the soil for seedlings. In the north, rainfall eases – a promise of drier days in the field ahead.

Thanks to your support, our long-term monitoring programs and active management on reserves across the country keep us in touch with these changes. Work plans respond accordingly, and we adapt to deliver timely and science-backed efforts to protect the places we care about most.

As a team, we emerge from high-risk fire and flood season. Some of our reserves were threatened by bushfire, but our preparedness and response meant they were protected from serious impact. As we continue on our path of best-practice fire management and risk mitigation, we welcome the recent endorsement from the Office of Bushfire Risk Management for our fire program in Western Australia. You can read about this in ‘Good fire citizen’.

Flooding impacted many of our reserves in Queensland, namely Edgbaston, the home of the Red-finned Blue-eye. But we trust in nature’s ability to bounce back and are making careful efforts to support its recovery. Already at Pilungah and Ethabuka, the desert has transformed from red to green, increasing habitat for a little-known grasswren featured in this Bushtracks.

In the next three months, we have an urgent opportunity to extend our protection and management of 107,000 hectares of land in the mid-west of Western Australia, next door to Charles Darwin Reserve. We’re rallying to purchase, protect and begin managing Wanarra as a conservation reserve in one of the most-cleared regions of the country.

In ‘Wanarra: letting the land heal’, you can learn about the cultural significance of this place, its immense ecological value, and why acting now matters for the future of this land. A sincere thank you to all who help us in helping nature to thrive.

Yours sincerely,

Rachel Lowry, Chief Executive Officer