Friendly Beaches

What Friendly Beaches Reserve protects

Animals: Spotted-tail Quoll (nationally vulnerable), Scarlet Robin, White-bellied Sea-eagle (vulnerable in Tasmania).

Plants: Sand Grasstree (nationally vulnerable), Southern Grasstree, Warty Paperbark (rare), Tasmanian Blue Gum, Juniper Wattle (rare), Slender Honey Myrtle.

Vegetation communities: Black gum forest (nationally critically endangered), Silver Peppermint forest and woodland (vulnerable), coastal heathland, Black Peppermint coastal forest and woodland.

Life on the edge

Lurking behind the natural beauty of Friendly Beaches Reserve lie two threats that call for constant vigilance.

The first is the ever-present danger of the mould Phytophthora cinnamomi, also known as root rot fungus, which attacks root systems and cuts off a plant’s ability to take in nutrients and survive.

Our ecologist Matt Appleby describes this disease as a destructive wave moving through the vegetation.

If Phytophthora hit these heathlands, the invasion front would show green, healthy banksia leaves turning rusty orange, and behind them would lie a field of banksias drained of colour and life, as well as other susceptible species such as  grasstrees and hakeas.

The other threat is also a disease, and menaces the Tasmanian Devils that wander in and out of this reserve as they hunt for food.

Devil Facial Tumour Disease is a terrible cancer that first surfaced in 1996 among Tasmania’s north-east devil population, and since then devil numbers have declined by more than 80% in all but the far north-west of Tasmania. Ongoing research into this terrible disease is critical to the future survival of the Tassie Devil.