Ediegarrup
Established:
2022
Area:
1,067 ha
Location:
140km north-east of Albany
Traditional Owners:
Koreng Noongar people
Along with Glovers Flat Reserve in Tasmania and John Douglas Reserve in Victoria, Ediegarrup was established in 2022.
Ediegarrup shares a 200 metre boundary to the north-east of our Red Moort Reserve and connects it to other important undisturbed bushland areas including unallocated Crown Land, Chingarrup Sanctuary, (a partnership property) and Corackerup Creek.
While this land has been partially cleared and used to grow cereal crops and canola, as well as for sheep grazing, it fills an important need in our portfolio of conservation properties in the area: connectivity.
The reserve contains 300 hectares of remnant bushland that connects our, previously isolated, Red Moort Reserve to other undisturbed land. And the 600 odd hectares of cleared country gives us another opportunity to restore native habitat in the area – a feat we’ve demonstrated successfully on nearby Monjebup, Red Moort, Beringa and Chereninup Creek reserves.
Connectivity is the main aim of the ambitious Gondwana Link project, which plans to restore a 1,000km swathe of bushland from Western Australia’s southwest to the edge of the Nullarbor Plain.
We’ve been active in the Fitz-Stirling region (between the Fitzgerald River and Stirling Range National Parks) since 2003 and Ediegarrup represents our fifth reserve in the area, where conservation work is an important counterbalance to decades of land clearing.
All this is protected thanks to our generous supporters.
What Ediegarrup Reserve protects
Remnant bushland on the property contains creek lines and breakaways, as well as undisturbed mallee heath (an at-risk plant community) where nationally vulnerable Malleefowl have numerous active breeding mounds. It also presents the opportunity to restore Mallet and Moort woodlands, as well as more proteaceous rich mallee heath. We expect it will provide critical habitat for:
Animals: Ngoorlak (Carnaby’s Cockatoo), Western Whipbird, Djoorditj (Western Quoll), Dhamer (Tammar Wallaby), Kwoora (Black-gloved Wallaby), Gnow (Malleefowl).
Vegetation communities: Mallet and moort woodland, Mallee heath, Flat-topped yate, Proteaceous rich heath.
A strategic fit
The purchase of Ediegarrup Reserve fitted perfectly with ambitions in our 2030 strategy.
The Southwest Australia Global Biodiversity Hotspot is one of 36 biodiversity hotspots, “where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat”.
This landscape is one of the oldest on the planet, and without disturbance from glaciers or volcanoes for over 200 million years, the region has evolved an exceptionally high floristic diversity, with an estimated 7,380 vascular plant species, of which 49% are endemic (found nowhere else).
Our aim in the Fitz-Stirling landscape is to build functioning, biodiverse corridors, that allow native species to move through fragmented areas of native bush.
As the majority of remnant bushland has been acquired, our focus is on strategically acquiring cleared agricultural land that can be restored and is positioned to connect up existing habitat.
What we’re doing
We’ll extend regional cat and fox control programs into the reserve, which will be important for protecting Tammar Wallaby – once thought nearly extinct in the region – as well as Black-gloved Wallabies and Malleefowl.
Restoration will be a focus in coming years, as we seek to extend existing habitat into cleared areas of the reserve.
Working with the community of Noongar Traditional Owners is a high priority in the south-west. In addition to cultural surveys, we look forward to many opportunities to collaborate and support best-practice land management.
“Revegetation and cultural heritage assessments on Ediegarrup will strengthen our partnerships with the Noongar community, support shared land management and deepen connection to country that has existed here for thousands of years.”
– Alex Hams, Healthy Landscape Manager
Fitz-Stirling photo gallery
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