Featuring

Katherine Moseby is a desert ecologist, specialising in threatened species reintroductions.  She has co-founded three fenced reserves including one of Australia’s first. She will discuss the pros and cons of fenced reserves and how we might be able to achieve similar results without fences.

Adrian Manning is an ecologist who helped to establish Mulligan’s Flat Woodland Sanctuary.  He will talk about the science behind our attempts to recreate ecosystems.

Annette Rypalski is an ecologist at Mt Rothwell, near Geelong, which is part of a larger conservation network managed by Odonata (CEO Sam Marwood).  Annette and Sam will share their insights into conserving endangered species in Victoria.

Founded in 1974 on Mount Toolebewong, the Moora Moora Cooperative Community is home to around 60 people who live on the property under a cooperative arrangement. The community includes six hamlets and a farming area.

The property, featuring 80-year-old mountain ash forests, is important habitat for the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum, which were found on the property for the first time in 2020.

One hundred and eighty hectares of the community is now protected under a covenant through Trust for Nature.

Supported by the Victorian Government Faunal Emblems project, the covenant protects habitat for Leadbeater’s Possums and other threatened species such as Lace Monitors and Powerful Owls.

Bank Australia bought the first of the properties that make up the conservation reserve in 2008, to act on customer concerns about climate change and to offset the impact of the bank’s ending for construction and motor vehicles.

The Bank Australia Conservation Reserve has grown hugely since then, in size and scope. The reserve protects 225 species of native wildlife and 270 species of native plants, and threatened species like the South Eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, the Fiery Jewel Butterfly and the Bearded Dragon.

The reserve is protected in perpetuity through conservation covenant. The bank works with Greening Australia and Trust for Nature, plus Traditional Custodians Barengi Gadjin Land Council, reserve neighbours and local CFAs to ensure the reserve is a thriving and collaborative example of science-based conservation in action. In 2017, Bank Australia, Trust for Nature and Greening Australia released the 10-year conservation strategy for the reserve.