Warwick Pearse, Convenor NPA Landscape Conservation Forum
In August 2025 the New South Wales Government announced the purchase of three large pastoral properties in north-west NSW. Bellenbar, Iona and Innisfail Stations will be added to the national parks estate. In December 2025 the government announced the purchase of two more properties in the same region, Tasman and Corinya, with the support of The Nature Conservancy and their partnership with the Wyss Foundation.
Ella Magee-Carr and Andrew Wong, Wilderness Australia
Proposed native forest logging could devastate Glenbog State Forest, one of the last true strongholds of the endangered Southern Greater Glider on the NSW South Coast.
Read More “Protecting Glenbog State Forest Against Logging Threats”
Dr Jonathon Howard, Executive Member NPANSW
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a unique, semi-aquatic Australian mammal and one of only five living monotreme species on earth. We have constructed dams in over 40% of the sub-catchments in which platypus are present.
Read More “Dams Impact Platypus Populations and River Ecosystems in Australia”
Eastern Quolls are endangered and have been extinct on the Australian mainland since 1963 – the only wild population is in Tasmania! Despite the quoll’s camouflage (see Nature Kids Winter 2024), key threats to quolls are predators like feral cats and foxes.
At the end of January 2026, four Eastern Quoll joeys were released at Bannockburn Rewilding Sanctuary on the NSW South Coast. They join 15 other quolls released in 2025 as part of the Invasive Species Council’s Rewilding Australia conservation program.
Researchers are monitoring the newly-released quolls using GPS technology to track their movements, survival and ecological impact. Their findings will guide future rewilding efforts in the hope that Eastern quolls can one day survive in NSW beyond predator-free fenced environments.
Watch a video of the young quolls being released
Fact: Wombat poo is square and comes out that way because of the shape and structure of a wombat’s lower intestine.
But did you know that wombats use their poo to communicate with eachother?! This is called “olfactory communication”.
In research recently published in the Journal of Zoology, scientists found that bare nosed wombats have a “vomeronasal organ”, sometimes described as a second (internal) nose, which they use to detect pheromones and other chemicals for social cues, mating, and predator or prey detection. Wombat scats/droppings are individually distinct, and scientists think that’s probably how these short-sighted animals tell each other apart!
Other animals with a second nose include snakes, lizards, rodents, horses, cattle, dogs and cats!
Find out more about wombat snouts
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Extinction Wrapped 2025 report found that more than 57,000 hectares of threatened species habitat was approved for land clearing by the Australian Government in 2025 – that’s the highest level of destruction in 15 years and10 times the area of Sydney Harbour! According to the report, two-thirds of that area was approved for clearing by the mining industry.
Author: Iain McCalman
Publisher: NewSouth Publishing
Reviewed by Anne Dickson and NPA Environmental Book Club
Iain McCalman, in ‘John Büsst: Bohemian artist and saviour of reef and rainforest’, engagingly narrates the life of a man whose artistic sensibility and creative exploitation of science and politics led to a successful collaborative crusade to protect wet tropics rainforest in Djiru Country, North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef. The title of this book hints at a story in two parts. Büsst’s artistic creativity and craftsman skills were honed during his time living in artist communities outside Melbourne and in Bedarra Island off the Queensland coast near Tully. Then, after falling in love with the flourishing but threatened natural environment of North Queensland, Büsst spent the later part of his life successfully campaigning to protect rainforest and reef ecosystems.
Read More “Book Review: John Büsst: Bohemian artist and saviour of reef and rainforest”
Author: Paul Humphries. With contributions by Katherine Doyle, Cameron G. Mc Gregor and Minda W. Murray. Illustrations by W. Howard Brandenburg
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing 2023
Reviewed by: Ricki Nash, NPA Environmental Book Club
About the Author: Associate Professor Paul Humphries is a River and Fish Ecologist based with the Gulbali Institute at Charles Sturt University (Albury-Wodonga). His work and research spans 40 years focusing on the early life cycles of freshwater fish, river ecology and flows, with a particular interest in historical ecology associated with the Murray-Darling Basin.
Read More “Book Review: The Life and Times of the Murray Cod”
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