Bush Heritage Australia, Annual Report 2012-2013 Page 14

Goal 3

Demonstrate

leadership and

innovation in nature

conservation

Bush Heritage is demonstrating leadership
in understanding and managing threatened
ecosystems and species, developing
conservation business systems and
supporting others to apply the knowledge
we've gained.

Innovation in management of
Wunambal Gaambera country, WA

Bush Heritage and Wunambal Gaambera

Aboriginal Corporation (WGAC) are leading

the way in implementing conservation
on Indigenous lands in Australia. The

Wunambal Gaambera Healthy Country Plan

was the first Indigenous land management
plan in Australia to use the international

Open Standard for Practice of Conservation.
WGAC and Bush Heritage have now
established the `Uunguu Monitoring and
Evaluation Committee' to guide and review

the implementation of the plan, which
aims to look after both biodiversity and
cultural values. The committee is made
up of traditional owner elders and rangers,
independent biologists, social scientists and
includes two Bush Heritage staff, Senior
Manager Philippa Walsh and Wunambal
Gaambera Healthy Country Manager Dr

Tom Vigilante, who convenes the committee.

As part of a ten-year agreement signed by

Bush Heritage and WGAC in 2011, Bush
Heritage employs and funds Dr Vigilante and
supports the implementation of the Healthy
Country Plan. The lessons learnt from the
development and implementation of this
plan will be shared with other Indigenous
groups across Australia and could also
benefit non-indigenous and government
land management agencies.

WGAC has declared Stage I of their

Indigenous Protected Area over some
343 741 hectares of country and will soon
declare a further 488 877 hectares as Stage II.

Saving fish on Edgbaston
Reserve, Qld

The red-finned blue-eye is a tiny, critically
endangered fish that lives nowhere other

than in a few springs on Edgbaston Reserve,
Qld. Bush Heritage aquatic ecologist, Dr

Adam Kerezsy, is charged with bringing this

small fish back from the brink of extinction.
His initial three-year project had two goals:
to develop control methods for the exotic
invasive Gambusia (mosquito fish), which
are primarily responsible for the decline
of the red-finned blue-eye, and to relocate
red-finned blue-eye to new springs to expand
the population. This project produced
interesting results and considerable success.

The fish poison rotenone was shown to be

successful at eradicating Gambusia from small
springs but required successive treatments
and was labour intensive. The relocated
populations of red-finned blue-eye fared well
in most of the springs and there are now six
populations compared with the original four.

In 201213, work began to install
barriers around certain springs to prevent
re-colonisation by Gambusia. Two methods
have been trialed: erecting a silt fence (from
shadecloth-like material) and constructing
a large earthen barrier. The silt fence may
prove to be the best option. First steps are also
being taken to establish a captive `insurance'
population of the tiny fish. Meanwhile, the
species has been included in a book released
by the IUCN highlighting the plight of the

100 most endangered species worldwide.

The construction of the earthen barrier was funded by
The Nature Conservancy's David Thomas Challenge

Above: Dr Adam Kerezsy samples
fish, Edgbaston Reserve, Qld.
Photograph by Annette Ruzicka