Volunteers from right across the country make Bush Heritage Australia’s work possible. Photos Beatrice Bentley and Leanne Hales.There’s no doubt that Bush Heritage volunteers are some of the best in the business. They roll up their sleeves to pull weeds. They battle aching muscles and clammy heat to plant seedlings. And they spend hours pouring over documents to help with our research.
So it made perfect sense to tap into their knowledge and expertise with the establishment of our very first Volunteer Advisory Committee.
Led by National Volunteer Coordinator Michelle Stook, the idea was to create pathways for deepening volunteer engagement that aligns with our strategic goals and helps to create further awareness about Bush Heritage in the community.
“The calibre of people who volunteer for Bush Heritage is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Michelle says. “They’re highly skilled, tremendously enthusiastic, and so passionate about what we do.”
“These people have such an enormous amount of skill that I wanted a way to formalise the knowledge and guidance that is continually offered to me. By providing the opportunity for volunteers to formally provide input into the volunteer program, and assist in the development of volunteer-related policies and procedures, we’re better supporting them and our staff.”
The aim, Michelle says, is simple.
“It’s about expansion. We have a really defined set of strategic goals to engage, inspire and empower more people to support and become involved in our conservation work. The more volunteers and volunteer opportunities we can develop and implement throughout the organisation, the better it is for meeting our strategic goals.”
Expressions of interest are now open to Bush Heritage volunteers across Australia. During November applications will be assessed and four people will be chosen to join the committee. Members will be asked to commit for two years, with meetings every two months.
Bush Heritage has around 600 volunteers – a figure that Michelle is keen on growing over the coming years.
Volunteers are our best advocates. They are filled with so much passion and pride with all they do.
“Volunteers are our best advocates. They are filled with so much passion and pride with all they do. We want to highlight that our volunteers play a central and crucial role in delivering on our conservation goals and that their skills and experience are a mandatory part of developing our successful program further.”
BUSHTRACKS 21/12/2015
At first glance, the striped legless lizard looks like a tiny colourful snake, with pink sides and a yellow throat. But its thick, fleshy tongue is unforked, it has visible ears, and two scaly flaps as hind legs. It munches on moths, crickets and spiders, and can spring more than 10cm into the air.
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We are hosting a new research project into how far south in Queensland’s Daintree River lowland forests the near threatened Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo may exist. After a sighting of a juvenile close to Palm Road in the Daintree, tree roo expert and author Roger Martin visited our Fan Palm Reserve in northern Queensland to investigate the southern range of this iconic Australian marsupial.
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Out on Bon Bon Station Reserve, the heat can sear your skin and leave you breathless. And yet this massive piece of land, which rivals the size of Sydney, is home to some of Australia’s most extraordinary creatures like the southern hairy-nosed wombat and the rare chestnut breasted whiteface. Here's how we manage wildfire risk for Bon Bon’s diverse plants and animals.
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The Tasmanian Midlands is a biodiversity hotspot, and refuge for dozens of nationally threatened species and nearly 200 plants and animals threatened in Tasmania.
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'We’re operating in a really important part of the continent,' says Bush Heritage’s Gondwana Link Landscape Manager Simon Smale. 'The area we’re working in now has been quite badly fragmented by a burst of clearing from agricultural development. We’re progressively buying and conserving properties to protect the bush that is left.'
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The Northern quoll, a nationally endangered species, had never before been recorded in the rainforests, or wulo, of Wunambal Gaambera Country. To see a healthy population is exciting, and demonstrates the good results coming from our partnership with the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation.
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In West Arnhem Land, we are working with the Nawarddeken people whose Indigenous Protected Area covers 1.4 million hectares of natural and cultural treasures. A biodiversity survey was conducted over 10 days in Baby Dreaming Country, a significant cultural site in the northern region of the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), a full day’s drive from Darwin.
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