Native to the south-west corner of Western Australia, Western Brush Wallabies were, at the time, widespread and common. But the species has since suffered from habitat loss and fragmentation, and their numbers have declined as a result – something Bush Heritage is working to reverse.
From 2012 to 2014, the organisation revegetated its Monjebup North Reserve, much of which was previously cleared for agriculture, with a wide variety of carefully selected native plants. With trees now standing up to 3m in height and shrubs up to 2m, native animals previously not seen in the cleared areas are returning.
“Monitoring the development of the vegetation, it’s looking pretty good,” Bush Heritage ecologist Angela Sanders says. “We’re getting good results with the birds, we have Honey Possums and Pygmy Possums and, of course, Western Brush Wallabies are now using the restored areas.”
The revegetation of Monjebup North is part of a Bush Heritage project to re-connect the Fitzgerald River and Stirling Range national parks, creating wildlife corridors for Western Brush Wallabies and other native animals.
The entire region sits within the broader ‘Southwest Ecoregion’ – one of 36 internationally recognised biodiversity hotspots – and is part of the larger Gondwana Link project, which aims to reconnect 1,000km of country in the southern part of the ecoregion.