Bulletin

Issue: July/August 2007

News

Bringing back bandicoots and quolls

Joint conservation effort at La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary

La Trobe University and the Japan Club of Victoria are creating a new habitat for Australian native animals in Melbourne’s north – at La Trobe University’s Melbourne Wildlife Sanctuary on the main campus at Bundoora.

Mr George Paras, Head Ranger of the Sanctuary, said that to assist with this, sanctuary staff and volunteers from the Friends of the Wildlife Reserves recently held an indigenous flora planting day. Other volunteers from the local community also helped.

‘The contribution of volunteers to the sanctuary project helps advance La Trobe University’s goal of protecting the region’s diverse flora, and brings us closer to our aims of introducing rare fauna,’ he said.

The Japan Club of Victoria and Dr Shigeaki Hinohara, Chairman of the New Elder Citizens League in Japan, have agreed to plant 1,000 plants over five years. Dr Hinohara – who describes himself as 95 years young – said his group had chosen to plant trees because they will survive past the 100 years of the current generation.

The club and Dr Hinohara are also contributing to the Sanctuary’s main fundraising project, a predator-proof fence, to ensure that Australians have a lasting legacy of native habitat.

The predator-proof fence will keep out foxes and other pests. Combined with the efforts of the Friends of the Wildlife Reserves, who hold regular working-bees, volunteer days and fundraising projects, it will create a safe habitat for animals like bandicoots and quolls.

The La Trobe University Melbourne Wildlife Sanctuary is open to the public, schools, and members of the University. For further information, please contact Andrew Stocker, Education and Information co-ordinator tel: (03) 9479 1206.