Connecting landowners to wildlife

This project educates landowners in Ballarat about wildlife cohabitating on their land and how to restore degraded vegetation. Displaced native wildlife travel greater distances in search of food and habitat, exposing them to greater risk of attack, death and disease. This project mitigates these challenges by promoting habitat restoration through community engagement in conservation.

Providing advice on wildlife on their properties and how best to support their habitat is essential. Loaning the recorders to landowners will identify the native wildlife on their land. This innovative approach ensures that habitat restoration efforts are precisely targeted, creating thriving ecosystems that support and enhance wildlife + flora.

Carers observe that rehabilitated animals often face fatal territorial conflicts when reintroduced to their habitats, as vacated territory is fiercely defended. The ‘soft release trailer’ is a mobile enclosure that allows for gradual reintroduction. This process reduces conflict and increases the survival rates of released animals.

This BWRAC project has been supported by grants from the Community Bank Buninyong and Landcare Victoria. The Wendouree Men's Shed (WMS) has also been an active supporter of the project by undertaking the welding and construction of the soft release enclosure. The WMS project manager, Darren Hibberd wrote an article about their involvement in the project, A Cage for Freedom, which you can Read here.