Building partnerships for the future

Dr Vanessa Westcott, Bush Heritage Ecologist.

Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. In addition to Bush Heritage’s national network of reserves, we also work in partnership with other landowners around the country, to make even more of a difference to conservation in Australia.

Our partnerships with Traditional Owners are helping to return vast tracts of country across Australia to good health.

Aboriginal Australians have lived on and learned from the land for millennia, developing knowledge that we can learn from through a ‘two-way’ science approach: an exchange between western science and traditional knowledge.

This approach allows us to contribute to conservation work at a landscape scale, while at the same time supporting the development of communities in which people and culture are healthy and strong.

The Birriliburu Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) is 6.6 million hectares of desert country in central Western Australia, a place of stunning sand dunes, rocky outcrops, mulga woodlands and waterholes. It is also a place where culture is strong.

The Traditional Owners of Birriliburu – the Martu people – have established an Indigenous ranger program to lead land management activities in this region. Bush Heritage has been supporting the Birriliburu Ranger team since 2013. We recognise the immense knowledge and powerful connection all rangers have to their country.

One of the Birriliburu projects we support is tracking and monitoring Bilbies to help safeguard their survival.

Once widespread across Australia, Bilby numbers have declined rapidly since European settlement, and they're now listed as Vulnerable.

But, the hard, red sands of the south-western pocket of the IPA provide ideal breeding habitat for the Bilby, and the rangers have recently found encouraging signs of fresh burrows, tracks and scats. Even so, they remain deeply concerned about the threats that Bilbies face on their country, including large wildfires and predation by feral cats and foxes.

I've been working alongside the rangers to support them in their management of these threats – an example of the two-way science approach working to help protect this iconic species.

The Birriliburu partnership continues to grow because it is built on trust, respect and a shared commitment to look after country.

Your ongoing support is helping benefit the native plants, animals, people and culture of Birriliburu.