Healthy Country Fellowships

Often, when we think of a conservation not-for-profit, we envisage people in boots and hats planting trees and pulling weeds. What we don't think of are the people that answer the phones, design the newsletters, take social media photos, or handle mail and process donations.

As part of the Seeding the Future Program, I undertook a PhD Internship with Bush Heritage Australia to study the changes in soil properties in response to destocking on Bon Bon Station Reserve, Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara Country.

When Lola Lange presents her research on the Pink Cockatoo (Lophochroa leadbeateri), she always delivers one jaw-dropping statement: there has been no research to date on the bird in Queensland… barely anything is known about the species.

A volunteer-led and long-term monitoring project will help protect York Gum woodlands against a warmer future.

For National Tree Day, Richard McLellan takes us into the South Australian outback for a sandalwood survey, exploring the significance of the species and its unfortunate plight.

This year’s Science Week theme is ‘Innovation: Powering Future Industries’. We’ve spoken with three early-career scientists and interns at Bush Heritage who are helping to create a better future by applying their scientific knowledge to conservation.

After extensive genetic and behavioural research, Western Grasswrens from sub-populations at Hamelin Station and Francois Peron National Park were mixed together.

Tenaya Duncan, Conservation and Wildlife Biology PhD student at Murdoch University, is using salvaged pallets, fence posts and corrugated iron in a unique way

It’s tempting, in conservation, to assume that the more regeneration that occurs in an ecosystem, the better. But Tarcutta Hills Reserve is a testament to the fact that sometimes less really is more.

Researching the answers to these questions is the basis of my PhD project. One aim is to understand how the diet of Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats changes in different rainfall zones and how this relates to the diversity of the gut microbiome of animals within the same study populations.

Big Sky Country Podcast: If every scent tells a story, the Australian Sandalwood Tree must be a library; rich with ecological, cultural and economic history books. But today, unsustainable harvesting, climate change and feral predators are pushing the tree perilously close to extinction.

Vegetation clearing for new agricultural land continues to cause environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and increased carbon emissions.

Hayley Sime began her relationship with Bush Heritage wearing a ‘volunteer’ hat, but these days her hat rack is crowded – it now includes botanist, intern and strategic planner, such is the nature of collaborating with Bush Heritage.

Across a 1,500 km arc from the Gibson Desert to Shark Bay, researcher Richard McLellan is uncovering the ecological and cultural value of sandalwood. 

I'm completing my PhD with the Spatial Sciences Group in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Adelaide in collaboration with Bush Heritage Australia.