Invasive Species Council Impact Report 2021-22

Cover image: Numbat.

Welcome

I am extremely proud to be an ambassador for the Invasive Species Council because I believe in the uniqueness of Australia and the species that evolved here. It saddens me that where I live one of my totems, Gungwaan (the emu), is locally extinct due to invasive species. It is a crime against nature for humanity to cause these extinctions.

Over the past two centuries this continent has seen nothing but a decline in the health and wellbeing of her soil, water and the abundance of her uniquely evolved plants and animals. It has been the lack of a connected and respectful culture that has been the core of this desecration.

This page: Narjong Ceremony.

My role as the Indigenous Ambassador is to enlighten all current Australians to the responsibility of custodianship, accepting this land and her species as their heritage, and caring for and protecting them as their culture.

Richard Swain, Indigenous Ambassador for the Invasive Species Council, Snowy Mountains river guide of 27 years, and a member of the Dabee clan of the Wiradjuri nation.

The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Photo: Bruce Thomson.

Photo: Justin McManus.

Message from our CEO

I’m proud to say that the Invasive Species Council is making historic progress!

As we navigate our way out of Australia’s most well-known biosecurity crisis in Covid19, we are ready to confront the challenge of ‘the most prevalent threat to Australian wildlife’ as stated by the 2021 State of the Environment Report.

This year we celebrated 20 years of impact. With that milestone comes greater maturity and ambition in our approach. We’re aiming high. We want to prevent invasive species driven extinctions.

This year has seen significant achievements worthy of celebration. We co-hosted the 2nd Australian Biosecurity Symposium and launched the Decade of Biosecurity, with a goal to transform the national biosecurity system, together. The federal government also released a forward-thinking National Biosecurity Strategy which gives us a strong platform for change.

We won an impressive commitment of $24.8 million to help solve the yellow crazy ant crisis in Townsville and keep the ants out of the World Heritage Wet Tropics in Cairns. We also helped to secure $9.8 million to tackle gamba grass in the Northern Territory. And last but not least, we won a strong plan to reduce feral horse numbers in Kosciuszko National Park.

All of this is a testament to our committed board, expert staff, extraordinary volunteers and supporters. A very special thank you to our donors, funders and partners – the passionate philanthropic change makers that power us on and the other impactful organisations driving the change we need. We wouldn’t be here without you and because of you, I hold high hopes for what the next 20 years can bring. There is no time to lose. Nature needs us now more than ever.

Andrew Cox, CEO

We would like to dedicate this impact report to the co-founders of the Invasive Species Council and to a very special funder The Ian Potter Foundation. Stopping invasive species driven extinctions and protecting nature for future generations would not be possible without you.

Mark Jekabsons.

Message from our president

Given invasive species are a leading driver of extinctions, we decided that a dramatic intervention was needed for nature and our wildlife.

To us it was clear. We had no other choice but to take our ambition to the next level, and there’s nothing like seeing ambition pay off. It was just over a year ago we set out to build our capacity – setting in motion the move from ‘punching above our weight’ to ‘delivering more knockout blows’ to protect our environment.

We’ve been emboldened by our small community of impressive funders, partners and a new team of experts – that were made possible by an incredible grant by The Ian Potter Foundation. This has borne an exciting 2030 strategy and action plan for 2025 that will alter the future of nature and avoid the dire trajectory for Australia’s wildlife and protected places.

Bolstered by this strategy and growth, our team has multiplied from 6 to 20 committed and passionate team members these past 12 months, alongside an increasing base of dedicated volunteers. We have seen our supporter base increase by 336% this year, and a new fundraising team that collaborates exceptionally well to achieve our ambitious targets.

Our strengthened team will allow the Invasive Species Council to ramp up its vital work on multiple fronts. Together, we will drive systems change, respond to urgent threats, develop cross-sector relationships and build awareness and engagement in invasive species challenges across Australia.

The board is excited to see our organisation bloom under the leadership of Andrew Cox, backed by the team. The reconstitution of our conservation and science committee this year speaks to our evidencebased focus and the impact-focused orientation to stop degradation and extinctions caused by invasive species. I would like to thank our partners, supporters, volunteers, contractors and staff for their passion and generosity that has made this year such a paradigm shift, not only for our organisation, but for the protection of our environment for today and for future generations.

Graeme Hamilton

Swift parrot. Photo: David Cook.

Reflections on 20 years

So much has changed since my book Feral Future came out in 1999. Australia has more than 100 unwelcome species out in the environment: fire ants, electric ants, myrtle rust, white spot disease of prawns, Siamese fighting fish, climbing perches, jaguar cichlids, Asian shore crabs, new weeds, etc., etc. And let’s not forget Covid19 and monkeypox.

We’ve seen many more unprecedented interactions – shiploads of imported cars turned back because of stink bugs and heath snails, emergency landings of passenger planes because keyhole wasps blocked probes, deer sighted in the inner suburbs of Melbourne (Fitzroy) and Sydney (Balmain, Leichhardt, Annandale), Aboriginal communities under siege from thirsty camels, and waves of shut-downs and restrictions from a global pandemic.

Finally, academic articles outing invasive species as a top cause of extinctions have emerged. According to a 2019 paper documenting all of Australia’s extinctions, 43 were caused mainly by invasive species (including diseases), 31 by habitat loss, and 10 by all other impacts combined. Of the 5 extinctions since my book came out, 4 are blamed on invasive wolf snakes

spreading across Christmas Island. The worst that could be said 20+ years ago was that invasive species were a major cause of extinctions. But there are some good changes. The arrival of the Invasive Species Council and its growth into a powerful force represents a huge advance in the focus on invasive species by the conservation movement.

Covid19 outed itself at the end of a year in which people took a record four billion plane flights. It is a manifestation of increasing globalisation which is turning out to be a huge experiment, driving invasions as never before. Travel between continents has become easier than ever for us, and for many other species as well. The work of stopping them falls mainly on governments, but a strong community voice is needed. So may the influence of the Invasive Species Council keep growing.

Tim Low, Invasive Species Council co-founder, ecologist and author

Stream in Kosciuszko National Park.

Photo: Mark Jekabsons.

In 2002, after reading Feral Future by Tim Low, I was shocked to learn that the same mistakes that created the rabbit and cane toad disasters were still happening. The biosecurity net designed to protect our environment was failing. I knew something had to be done. So I brought together a bunch of smart, passionate people, and the Invasive Species Council was born. 20 years on, they are an important force for nature.

Dr Barry Traill, co-founder

Celebrating 20 years of impact

In May, we celebrated 20 years of impact. We toasted the foresight of our founders and funders, who have both been instrumental to our success.

In 2002, sparked by the book Feral Future, our forwardthinking founders knew then that invasive species were a key driver of extinctions and the destruction of our environment.

An article in The Age newspaper in 2003 had a sense of how difficult it could be to tackle this threat:

“With a focus dominated by America’s war with Iraq, the Government’s awareness campaign against would-be terrorists, and the ravages of bushfires and drought, it is going to be difficult promoting the invasive species issue as one of the most confronting problems facing this country.”

Yet this is exactly where we find ourselves today. The collective vision of our founders lives on 20 years later in the progressive work of the Invasive Species Council fighting to change the course of history and stop a feral future from eventuating.

With the outstanding support of people who see the urgent need, and armed with our new strategy, we strive to put invasive species at the centre of the nature emergency.

Invasive

Species Council established

Won a ban of Australia’s worst weeds: gamba grass and Cecropia

Focussed world attention on the weed risks of biofuel crops

Defeated a NSW bill that would have allowed the release of exotic birds for hunting in national parks

Prevented new industries seeking to grow invasive weeds or farm pest animals

$10.5m secured to protect Queenslands’ Wet Tropics World Heritage Area from yellow crazy ants

$411 million secured eradicate ants from East Queensland

Walls

million secured to red fire from South Queensland

It was very clear there was a major gap. Invasive species is a big issue and you need to have a single institution working on an issue to make a difference. Advocacy is needed to achieve the systemic change we need when it comes to invasive species. Philanthropy is really important in getting organisations going, and continuing them, because it’s a gap that the government is not going to fund, it’s a gap that the corporate world is not going to fund. It’s an opportunity for philanthropy and independent money to achieve change. The Invasive Species Council is taking off and has got invasive species on the table now.

Amanda Martin, co-founder

Secured the role of a Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer in the federal government

Protected status of feral deer removed in NSW

Decade of dedication: The Invasive Species Council’s formation and 20 years of achievements were due to the work of many people, but the contributions of three people over many years particularly stand out: Tim Low, Carol Booth and John Sampson. We would not be where we are today without their passion and selfless dedication to protect Australia’s biodiversity from invasive species. Thank you for your service.

Secured $18 million government investment to manage feral deer in Victoria over 4 years

Won a NSW government commitment to reduce feral horses in Kosciuszko NP from 14,000 to 3,000 by 2027

Won a commitment to protect the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area from feral deer

Decade of Biosecurity launched with government, community and industry partners

Five of our seven co-founders: Amanda Martin, Paul Baddeley, Lucy Vaughan, Tim Low and Steve Mathews, who were at the first meeting on

that adopted the organisation’s constitution. Co-founders not in this photo: Barry Traill and Paola Parigi.

A 2030 strategy, a plan of action for 2025

This year we launched our exciting 2030 strategy and three year action plan that provides the roadmap for our new 2050 vision – an Australia where wildlife and ecosystems are safe from invasive species. We’ll work to ensure that by 2050, invasive species are no longer

the major driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. This is the first time such an ambitious goal of this type has been attempted in Australia, but if we are serious about solving the extinction crisis, this must be our course.

Our 2030 goal is for Australia to have a strong environmental biosecurity system, enabling more effective:

Eradications: priority invasive species are being systematically eliminated from the Australian mainland and islands.

Containment and control: invasive species have not caused any more extinctions, high priority invasive species are being effectively contained or controlled, and priority biodiversity sites are being protected.

By 2025 we will seek a dramatic turnaround for Australia’s current environmental trajectory. Key priorities include:

• Launching Australia’s first long-term advocacy campaign to radically curb the impact of cats.

• Tackling invasive species at all four stages of the invasion curve. That means tackling both threats from new arrivals to Australia, plus long-established threats that have been thrown in the ‘too hard basket’ like cats, which kill as many mammals every year as the 2019/20 bushfires.

• A focus on protected areas and islands, where we can have the most impact protecting national biodiversity hotspots.

• Broadening our work to stop the devastation caused by feral deer and horses across the country, including a focus on sensitive areas such as Australia’s alpine regions.

• An Indigenous program led by our Indigenous ambassador Richard Swain.

We are immensely grateful for the donors who choose annual pledged giving. Your ongoing support provides secure capacity from which we can build ambitious goals for nature and wildlife.

Thank you for your trust and commitment.

• Anne Reeves

Beetle Bones Fund

Brennan Family Foundation

Christopher and Gina Grubb

Curlew Foundation

Garry White Foundation

Geoffrey and Geraldine Harris

Jamie Pittock

Melliodora Fund

Mullum Trust

Naylor Stewart Foundation

• Paddy Pallin Foundation

• Robert Hawes

• Water Dragon Fund

We are also grateful for the support of many anonymous donors.

Prevention: the establishment of new invasive species in Australia has substantially slowed, and no new very-high-risk species have permanently established.

Containment: Reclaim Kosci

Reclaim Kosci has grown into a campaign that represents everything about why our environment needs the Invasive Species Council. Protecting Kosciuszko National Park from feral horses had been too controversial, too political, and too hard for some. The latest survey estimates there are now more than 14,000 feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park, but a 2018 NSW government decision prioritised legal protection of these invasive animals over the native wildlife the park is supposed to protect. Feral horses have been left almost entirely unchecked to run rampant across the park and to breed up. As a result their numbers have exploded.

In August 2021, after the NSW government failed to provide transparency on the effectiveness of their feral horse management in Kosciuszko, we successfully lodged a freedom of information request, which revealed that the number of horses removed

each year was estimated to be only one third of what was needed to stop their population from increasing. We also found bombshell revelations that there had been no trapping done in the largest sub-alpine wetland of the park occupied by more than 1,300 horses and, shockingly, that there had been no control of horses in the southern portion of the park since 2015.

Indigenous people have lived in the Snowy Mountains for thousands of years, the mountains are unique and particularly important to Aboriginal heritage and culture. There is no other place like them on Earth.

Aunty Rhonda Casey, Njarigo Traditional Owner

Photo:

The issue with the feral horses in particular is that it’s a cultural issue. We are protecting feral horses above our native species for a certain people’s view on what Australia’s culture should be – even against the fact that they’re going to cause extinctions.

Richard Swain, Indigenous Ambassador

Kosci’s new management plan

In November 2021, after years of lobbying and advocacy, the NSW government signed off a new feral horse management plan for Kosciuszko National Park. During the drafting phase of the plan, we supported a letter penned by the Academy of Sciences that was endorsed by eight scientific societies and more than 60 individual scientists. It called for the removal of the 3,000 target, raising serious concerns about the retention of feral horses in parts of the park, and for a full suite of horse control methods to be made available. The new plan aims to remove thousands of feral horses from the park through a range of control measures, including ground shooting. It was a milestone moment for all of us who have been watching the park turn from a natural treasure-trove into a trampled paddock. But the new management plan also has critical flaws.

The plan leaves one third of the park to be overrun by feral horses and rules out the use of humane aerial culling. The latter will make it substantially

more difficult for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to achieve the population reductions outlined in the plan. Ultimately, the plan is also overshadowed by the prevailing 2018 legislation that requires the ongoing protection of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park. As the needed horse cull takes place, we expect to see significant resistance to science and sensibility.

This year we presented a parliamentary petition that received more than 15,000 signatures calling for a repeal of the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Act 2018. We mobilised our supporters and supportive organisations to respond to the draft horse management plan. More than 4,000 submissions were received with the majority supporting feral horse removals. We also represented science and nature in more than 20 mainstream media stories covering feral horses in Kosciuszko National park, including a major investigation by ABC’s Four Corners.

James Trezise, conservation director, delivering letters of support.

Sunset from Mt Kosciuszko. Photo: Mike Edmondson.

Where the Water Starts is a beautiful tribute to the true values of Kosciuszko National Park through the eyes of people whose cultural heritage is too often ignored in the face of colonial attitudes towards feral horses. The film features our Indigenous Ambassador Richard Swain and his wife Alison. We’ve been facilitating community screenings across ACT, NSW and Victoria and online to thousands of people.

Seeing their story play out on the big screen and move audiences from all walks of life has been an inspiring experience for all involved.

Molly Quinn, Reclaim Kosci campaign assistant

Four Corners investigation

In February 2022, Four Corners released their investigation entitled Feral. This episode not only investigated the limited management of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park, but also told of the intimidation and aggression directed by some towards park rangers and staff, scientists, community activists and many of our very own staff and volunteers who are all doing what they can to protect the park.

Our work to Reclaim Kosci wouldn’t be where it is today without our dedicated funders, volunteers and supporters who make it possible. A very special thank you to Purves Environmental Fund, CAGES Foundation (Family Funding Stream), Esther Gallant, Ross Knowles Foundation, Paddy Pallin Foundation, Madden Sainsbury Foundation and Phillip Cornwell.

When we asked Australians to submit letters of support thanking the parkies for their tireless efforts to protect Kosci, we were overwhelmed by the response. Seven hundred letters shared happy memories, family photos and a love from across Australia of Kosciuszko National Park. The staff at the Jindabyne office who received these were very appreciative and thankful for the support.

What’s next?

At the time of writing, the NSW Government has announced the pause to all feral animal control in the park following misinformation promoted by feral horse advocates in the media. We’ll need to keep up the pressure to implement the plan, especially in the lead-up to the March 2023 NSW election. The native wildlife, Indigenous heritage and local communities that rely on the region can’t afford us to stop now.

The support that’s been provided to enable this campaign, particularly in Kosci for feral horses is absolutely crucial and is greatly utilised by Andrew and his colleagues. For those of you that haven’t had an opportunity to provide some support but are thinking about it I want to strongly encourage you to consider that.

Peter Garrett AM

Where the Water Starts screening at Mount Vic Flicks. Photo: Alison Swain.

Eradication: yellow crazy ants & gamba grass

The 2022 federal election campaign was a source of great apprehension for all of us who fight for protecting Australia’s native biodiversity. In the lead up to the election we published the report Tackling Deadly Threats to Nature, outlining initiatives and policies for the next Australian Government to keep our native wildlife safe from new and established invasive species. The eventual result has been extensively billed as ‘the climate election’, but our strong campaigning ensured there were also major invasive species wins.

The Cairns infestations of yellow crazy ants had been treated under a joint state and federal government eradication program, but this funding was set to run out in mid-2022. The Townsville infestations lacked any state or federal government eradication funding, leaving Townsville City Council and Invasive Species Council’s Townsville Yellow Crazy Ant Community Taskforce struggling in their fight against an everrising tide of yellow crazy ants. They could only do so much with limited resources.

The 2022 federal election was our best shot at forcing action on yellow crazy ants before they would start to cause major impacts on northern Queensland’s wet and dry tropics. We led a campaign calling on the Queensland government and the major political parties running in the federal election to fully fund eradication programs in Cairns and Townsville.

What’s next?

We will keep up pressure to increase investment to tackle the worst invasive species, increase funding to eradicate red fire ants, and deliver Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) reforms. We’ll also continue our work in Queensland to eradicate yellow crazy ants.

Bev Job from the Invasive Species Council running a community workshop on detecting yellow crazy ants in Townsville.

Federal election: Our impact

In the weeks before the May 2022 election, more than 7,000 Australians signed our petition calling for action on invasive ants and nearly 1,000 supporters sent emails to key politicians and candidates using our mailing tool. Yellow crazy ants also began repeatedly breaking into mainstream news cycles, including a feature by ABC News that highlighted our work on the ground in Townsville.

Then the commitments started rolling in. The Coalition pledged a $3 million, 12-month extension to the existing Cairns eradication program with a promise to incorporate it into the National Landcare Program in future years. Soon after, the Australian Greens committed $30 million, and the Australian Labor Party $24.8 million, for yellow crazy ant eradication programs in both the Cairns and Townsville areas.

At the same time, our work with Top-End community group Gamba Grass Roots and Environment Centre NT secured a $9.8 million commitment from the federal Labor Party to tackle the highly invasive gamba grass in the Northern Territory.

These are big wins – all thanks to the tireless efforts of our supporters writing letters, signing petitions and raising their voice to make sure political parties take notice, backed up by persistent advocacy by our conservation team behind the scenes.

Yellow crazy ants

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists yellow crazy ants in the list of 100 of the worst invasive species in the world. They can form supercolonies with nests containing hundreds of queens and a network of billions of individual ants that swarm their prey, blinding them by spitting formic acid in their eyes. They eat their way through ecosystems from the bottomup, leaving forests silent in their wake.

Outbreaks have occurred in several locations in Australia before. But the recent infestations in Cairns and Townsville have the potential for these invasive ants to spread across much of northern Queensland, an area they would be highly climatically suited to.

Not only could yellow crazy ants trigger an extinction-level event in areas like Mt Elliot in Bowling Green Bay National Park near Townsville, a Melbourne University analysis also found that without the Cairns eradication program, it would cost that region alone more than $500 million over 30 years.

Gamba grass is a highly invasive Weed of National Significance which fuels hotter, more dangerous fires that increase carbon emissions and threaten homes, livelihoods, and iconic places like Kakadu National Park.

Through sheer numbers yellow crazy ants overpower and kill much larger animals, like this honey eater, by spraying them with formic acid. Photo: Mikhaila Jacoby.

Containment: feral deer

Feral deer are emerging as one of Australia’s worst environmental and agricultural threats. But controlling their impacts remains undermined by a lack of funding and antiquated legal protections.

In mid-2021, the Invasive Species Council helped form the Victorian Deer Control Community Network, a statewide forum collaborating on the threat of more than one million feral deer exploding across Victoria. The need for community collaboration and awareness raising is all too clear. An action plan released by the Victorian Government in 2022, the first of three such plans for the state, was presented as a pathway to control feral deer in peri-urban areas on the outskirts of eastern and northern Melbourne. But, despite this intention and the support the plan provides to local councils, it remains overshadowed by Victoria’s antiquated legal protections of feral deer under the Wildlife Act 1975.

Building the case for action

In 2022, we commissioned a report on feral deer in Victoria with Frontier Economics. It found feral deer could cost the Victorian community between $1.5-2.2 billion over the next 30 years. The significant costs, spread across farming and forestry industries, vehicle incidents and reduced value to Victorian national and state parks,

dwarf the $18.75 million the Victorian government has invested in feral deer control over four years. Control efforts in Tasmania are also blunted by a state legal classification of feral deer as protected wildlife.

In August 2021, we prepared a report with funding from the Bob Brown Foundation that maps the concerning rapid increase and spread of feral deer in Tasmania. Our report outlined 28 actions to steer the state’s farmers, land managers and environment away from a collision course with their burgeoning impacts. Three months after the report was published, and following months of campaigning and advocacy from the Invasive Species Council and our supporters, the Tasmanian government released its feral deer control plan. While we are pleased the plan took on board some of our proposals, including biodiversity zoning, it still leaves Tasmania protecting feral deer as game species above protecting agricultural and environmental interests from the destructive impacts of feral deer.

Thank you to The Ross Trust for funding the urgent work in Victoria, and to Frontier Economics for developing the report. Protecting Tasmania’s world heritage wilderness has been made possible thanks to the Purryburry Trust and Dragonfly Fund.

Photo: Judy Owen.

We’re on the way thanks to the Invasive Species Council. I can’t think of anybody else who could have done it. I don’t know of any consultant who would have given us that report. And it’s been powerful. It’s changing things here in Tasmania and it’s because of the Invasive Species Council. I just can’t speak too highly of the council, dinkem, we would have had nowhere else to turn to.

When Dr Michael Hall, Cardinia Deer Management Coalition president, and I came up with the idea to create a network for Victorians to share information and experiences about feral deer and collaborate with groups affected by them, it seemed like it would always remain just a dream. But early support from the Invasive Species Council’s CEO Andrew Cox and Victorian deer project officer Peter Jacobs was instrumental in turning it into reality within just six months! The Victorian Deer Control Community Network now consists of a growing body of about 150 individuals and groups with a dedicated website.

Johannes Wenzel, chair of the Victorian Deer Control Community Network

What’s next?

The Invasive Species Council remains a voice for nature and farming land in Victoria and Tasmania. With an upcoming Victorian state election in late 2022 and our new Tasmanianfocused conservation officer joining the team, we will see our feral deer campaign activities ramp up over the next year to better protect communities and the environment in both states. We will build awareness of the ridiculous protected status of deer in Victoria and Tasmania and work with the farming community to mobilise Australians to convince governments to act.

Bob Brown, patron of the Bob Brown Foundation

Cradle Mountain National Park, in the heart of the Tasmanian World Heritage Area, is at risk from the rapidly spreading feral deer population. Photo: Richard Siu.

The State of Environmental Biosecurity Report

Weeds can be as destructive as land clearing –displacing and threatening native species and transforming ecosystems. Despite this, most invasive plants are not regulated and continue to be introduced and spread.

Pathogens like Phytopthera cinnamoni and myrtle rust are both funguses that cause disease, driving entire species of Australian plants to extinction.

Myrtle rust is responsible for the imminent extinction of 16 rainforest tree species in Queensland. The fungal disease has now made it to Western Australia’s Kimberley region, bringing with it great concern for this magnificent region, and fears it will spread to WA’s southwest, a global biodiversity hotspot.

To tackle weeds and disease, the Invasive Species Council is undertaking a year-long research project to develop the State of Environmental Biosecurity Report – the first report of its kind globally. It will address the issues facing Australia’s biosecurity system for the purposes of benefiting our wildlife, bushland, people and farms. It will also help benchmark Australia’s and each state and territory’s progress.

The current State of Environment Report fails to capture the complexity of invasive species and biosecurity. Ideally, the federal and state governments would develop their own comprehensive reports but given the urgency of Australia’s extinction crisis, we are leading on this until governments take it on. It is our aim to elevate the state of environmental biosecurity so this area receives increased attention into the future.

What’s next?

We are mobilising support to eradicate myrtle rust from the Kimberley and to protect WA’s biodiverse southwest from the fungal disease. We will be launching the completed State of Environmental Biosecurity Report in early 2023.

2022 Froggatt awards

Weeds grew to an all time high this year. Gratefully, Gamba Grass Roots are doing something about it and were awarded the 2021 Froggatt Award for their community advocacy campaign tackling one of Australia’s most alarming invasive species.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Gamba Grass Roots, the Northern Territory Government committed $1 million over two years to establish a Gamba Army and nearly $1 million in additional funds to expand gamba control measures.

The impacts of Gamba Grass Roots cannot be overstated. ‘Gamba grass transforms our native flora and fauna into a wasteland. It fuels dangerous fires that threaten our homes and is also at risk of taking over tourist icons like Litchfield National Park’, said Liza Tobin, Gamba Grass Roots supporter.

Thank you to The Ross Trust for funding the State of Environmental Biosecurity Report.

Gamba Grass Roots volunteers. Photo: Pew Charitable Trusts.

Gamba grass in the Northern Territory. Photo: Pew Charitable Trusts.

Threats to nature

The Threats to Nature campaign aims to focus national efforts on tackling the big threats to nature and reverse species decline. As part of this, the landmark report Averting Extinctions – The case for strengthening Australia’s threat abatement system, was released in April 2022 by the Invasive Species Council and four other national conservation groups. The report warns we face an avalanche of imminent extinctions unless we reduce all threats facing biodiversity, including invasive species. The report calls for Australia to become much more ambitious about overcoming major threats, such as invasive species, wildfires and habitat loss. It calls for three major reforms:

1. Systematic listing of threats and more adequate response options including regional plans.

2. More funding for threat abatement.

3. Commitments by all governments to implement threat abatement plans.

We capitalised on the increased attention on environmental issues in the lead up to the 2022 Federal Election and triggered a wide-reaching conversation about Australia’s environmental laws and processes. The report’s launch was covered in an exclusive article with The Guardian, and was subsequently picked up by news outlets across the country.

What’s next?

new federal government

focus

national

Australia’s threat abatement system is a critical piece of environmental policy that encompasses the national listing of threats to native biodiversity and the development and implementation of national plans to abate those threats. Australia currently has 22 formally listed threats, 14 of which are related to invasive species.

Dr Carol Booth, Invasive Species Council principal policy analyst

have been grateful for the support of the Australian Communities Foundation Impact Fund for making our Threats to Nature project

Management: cats

Addressing Australia’s cat problem has long been tossed into the ‘too hard basket’. But the Invasive Species Council has a track record of tackling the tough issues. So, in 2022, we launched our national cat campaign.

The campaign is in its infancy but already we have engaged the Australian community who have signed 6,766 petition signatures calling for urgent investment by the federal government. We have also started to work with local councils in NSW to muster support for effective cat containment policies.

We will continue to speak for the environment on the national Feral Cat Taskforce and we have recently been selected to co-chair the new national Domestic Cat Working Group over the first half of the coming financial year.

Few invasive species can claim anywhere near as big of an impact as cats. Feral and roaming cats cover over 99% of Australia, and have substantially or primarily led to 27 native species extinctions since colonisation. They now imperil another 123 nationally threatened species, killing more than 2 billion mammals, birds and reptiles every year. As challenging as it can be to confront, we can’t escape the fact that roaming pet cats are responsible for about a quarter of those annual deaths.

There’s not yet been an ongoing national campaign on cats. This work by the Invasive Species Council will fill this critical gap to stop extinctions led by cats.

David Rickards, funder and Invasive Species Council treasurer

What’s next?

Upcoming state elections will be opportunities to tackle regulatory blocks and to advocate for more funding which has been holding back the tide of feral cat control and eradication projects. We will develop powerful communications based on social research to build a groundswell of national support to protect wildlife from cats. We will also work to tackle barriers preventing pet cat containment in NSW and effective feral cat management in Victoria.

A very special thank you to Rob Michael and The Coalition (Solutions) for providing seed funding that initiated this urgent work to protect Australia’s wildlife. Thank you to those who responded to the urgent call led by David Rickards (Carrawa Foundation), Horizon Foundation, Natalie M., and the Naylor Stewart Foundation.

Feral cat stomach contents collected July 1993 at Roxby Downs. Comprised of 32 lizards, a house mouse, and a zebra finch.

Photo: Peter Bird, Arid Recovery.

Offshore islands

With a great number of offshore islands comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, Australia has not been meeting our moral obligation to our native island species as we have no coordinated approach to managing our 8,411 offshore islands.

In fact, the problem is bigger than it seems. Since 2000, all known extinctions in Australia have been of endemic island animals and the dominant cause in all but one has been invasive species. Island birds and mammals are prominent among the most likely species to become extinct within the next 20 years. But we have the opportunity to turn these extinction hotspots into an opportunity to save our threatened animals. These offshore islands are located all the way from the southern sub-Antarctic to the northern tropics and therefore represent a unique and valuable sample of Australia’s biological diversity and environments.

Much work has already begun. Australia achieved international recognition for the all-but officially confirmed eradication of feral mice and rats on the World Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island. Within a short time, black-winged petrel numbers increased by 50%, the Lord Howe Island woodhen population doubled, and the recovery of rare snails, insects and at-risk plant species such as the critically endangered little mountain palm were incredible to witness.

There are other advantages of eradicating feral species like cats, foxes and rodents from our offshore islands. Once these islands are feral-free, they can be used as safe havens for mainland-based animals and birds to recover in numbers without predation.

But much work needs to be done. This is why we have been calling on the federal government to commit to creating a nationally coordinated island plan. If we can accomplish that, a larger effort to completely eradicate some of the worst feral animals and weeds from our biggest island Tasmania could then be within reach.

Froggatt Award

Lord Howe Island has been awarded the national 2021 Froggatt Award for taking on the largest ever eradication of rodents from an inhabited island.

Progress on Norfolk Island

In Norfolk Island, we are focusing on the eradication of rats by promoting improvements to biosecurity and management measures including baiting programs, developing monitoring protocols and community outreach. Already, 850 bait stations have been delivered to Anson Bay residents with a high up-take rate of 90%. In October 2021, we published the first ever mapping comparing what Norfolk Island’s forests, woodlands and grasslands look like now compared to pre-colonisation. The project, led by Naomi Christian and Dr Kevin Mills, took over two years of working with local and mainland experts, searching through old photo and illustration archives, extensive fieldwork and conducting mapping with aerial drones. The maps will help guide the restoration of many threatened native plants and ecosystems that are under pressure from rodents, cats, weeds and past habitat loss.

Thank you to the Eldon and Anne Foote Trust, administered by the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation, for funding our work on Norfolk Island.

Norfolk Island green parrot. Photo: Luis Ortiz-Catedral.

Lord Howe Island.

The Australian Biosecurity Symposium

In May Australia’s 2nd premier biosecurity gathering was held – Australia’s Biosecurity Symposium – on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The symposium is a biennial event conceived by the Invasive Species Council and co-hosted by a group known as The Biosecurity Collective: Invasive Species Council, Animal Health Australia, Plant Health Australia and the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions.

With more than 400 government, industry, scientific and community representatives from across the nation’s biosecurity system in attendance and keynote speeches from Dr Norman Swan, Dr Anika Molesworth and Dr Debbie Eagles, the event was a major success. We showcased the latest thinking, built new partnerships and engaged in challenging discussions about how to best tackle the unprecedented pressure on Australia’s biosecurity system. The invasive Species Council ensured 20 delegates representing important voices from the community and environment sector were able to attend including our ambassador Christine Milne.

The 2022 Australian Biosecurity Symposium theme was ‘a decade of biosecurity: turning a moment into a movement’.

I must congratulate Andrew on the inception of the Biosecurity collective – which brings a breath of fresh air to biosecurity, not necessarily coming from a government perspective but from the industry and community perspective.

Sarah Corcoran, CEO Plant Health Australia

A special thanks to Animal Health Australia, Centre for Invasive Species Solutions, Plant Health Australia and the Queensland, South Australian and Western Australian governments for funding the coordination of the Decade of Biosecurity.

Our CEO Andrew Cox on stage with (left to right) MC Costa Georgiadis, Queensland Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Mark Furner, Plant Health Australia CEO Sarah Corcoran and National Landcare Network CEO Jim Adams at the 2nd Australian Biosecurity Symposium.

Launching the Decade of Biosecurity

A strengthened biosecurity system is an integral part of achieving our vision to prevent environmental decline and extinctions caused by invasive species. Thanks to our efforts, the federal government and all state and territory governments have committed to calling this the Decade of Biosecurity. Hundreds of government, industry and community representatives signed-up to support the project.

We launched the Decade of Biosecurity at the Australian Biosecurity Symposium. This powerful collaboration of industry, government and community will transform our national biosecurity system to protect our farms, bushland, people and wildlife. The Invasive Species Council’s leadership at the Australian Biosecurity Symposium and through the Decade of Biosecurity initiatives is ensuring our environment has a respected voice in biosecurity reform.

Biosecurity is increasingly featuring in all of our lives. The detection of varroa mites in 2022 saw the emergency destruction of thousands of commercial and feral honeybee hives in NSW, the invasive polyphagous shot-hole borer is spreading in suburban Perth, foot-and-mouth disease looms on our border, and every day more potential invasive species threaten to hitch a ride on growing international travel

and trade to Australia. Ensuring the 2020s will be the Decade of Biosecurity is an exciting opportunity to involve the entire community in biosecurity, creating a stronger system that benefits everyone, including our native species.

Vertebrate pests were having a major impact on our business and environment and we had to change government policy from protection to control. The Invasive Species Council was an important friend and ally. They have a network of influence and advocacy that isn’t conflicted with political or commercial interests which as land managers we found vital.

Ted Rowley, beef producer, Monaro region NSW

Costa Georgiadis with Nicky Fitzgibbon, our Decade of Biosecurity co-ordinator, at the launch.

Our Conservation and Science Committee

This year we undertook a reconstitution of our scientific advisory committee, renaming it to the conservation and science committee. The revised purpose of the committee is to act as an authoritative reference point on environment biosecurity and biodiversity conservation science and policy. This includes policy, management, and advocacy, reviewing policies or positions, and facilitating communication of information on environment biosecurity and biodiversity protection.

We welcome the following members who will be key to our evidence-based approach to stop degradation and extinctions caused by invasive species.

Ian Thompson (chair)  Ian has been responsible for Australian Government policy and programs including Landcare and natural resources, water, fisheries, forestry and biosecurity. He was Australia’s first Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer. He previously chaired Wildlife Health Australia and served on the boards of the Land and Water and Grains Research and Development Corporations, Landcare Australia Limited and the Weeds Cooperative Research Centre. He graduated in natural resources management from the University of New England and is a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program.

Dr Samantha Setterfield Samantha has more than 25 years experience in tropical ecology with a focus on tropical savanna and wetland ecology, invasive plant ecology, and weed risk management. Samantha has lecturing positions at Charles Darwin University (CDU) and continues to build her research programme on tropical plant ecology.

Dr Sarah Legge

Sarah is a professor at the Australian National University and a Principal Research Fellow with The University of Queensland. She is a wildlife ecologist with 30 years of research and conservation management experience.

Dr Chris Dickman

Chris is a professor in Ecology at the University of Sydney and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He is the recipient of several national and international awards, including New South Wales Plant and Animal Scientist of the Year in 2010. His work across conservation and management includes seeking to understand and manage the impacts of introduced predators on native fauna.

Dr Mark Lonsdale

Mark’s expertise includes ecology, biological invasions and environmental risk analysis. He has been chief of CSIRO Entomology and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, and has served as co-chair of the Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP) overseeing IPBES, the UN global biodiversity assessment platform. In 2016, he chaired the review of Wild Horses on Kosciuszko National Park. He is a member of the Ecosystem Science Council and the ACT Scientific Committee.

Dr Lynette McLeod

Lynette is an environmental psychologist. Her 30 years’ experience has seen her holding professional research positions within the NSW Department of Primary Industries and New England University. She has worked with the community to manage a range of issues, including free-roaming cats, wild dogs and widespread weeds. Lynette has recently moved to Christchurch, where she is an adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Canterbury.

Dr April Reside

April is a lecturer in wildlife science at the University of Queensland. Her research encompasses ecology, conservation, and policy, with a particular focus on vertebrates. April has been involved in conservation of the Black-throated Finch for over 12 years, and is chair of the Black-throated Finch Recovery Team. She is also a member of the Research and Conservation Committee and Threatened Species Committee for Birdlife Australia.

A message from

Invasive Species Council does a fantastic job because it’s the bridge between bringing pressure to bear on government and the broader community.

living in the sixth wave of extinctions and we’re seeing the collapse of biodiversity and ecosystems

Yet a lot of people don’t realise that alien invasive species are one of the major drivers of extinction. It’s important to get the message out that when you say you care about the bush and species, you should be caring about the impact of alien invasive species. That’s why I’m involved in this campaign and the Decade of Biosecurity.

Christine Milne AO

After 20 years, the Invasive Species Council is just getting started.

Our vision is for an Australia where wildlife and ecosystems are safe from invasive species. By 2050, invasive species are no longer a major driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation in Australia.

We catalyse strong, collaborative biosecurity to protect and restore what makes Australia extraordinary — our unique wildlife and ecosystems.

As the only advocacy organisation dedicated to the growing threat of invasive species, we must leap into the future with a bold plan that is powerful enough to alter the dire trajectory for Australia’s wildlife and landscapes and save our species from extinction. But we can’t do it without you.

Your investment today will scale our impact to protect nature. We look forward to working with you.

Please donate what you can today. invasives.org.au/donate

The Invasive Species Council’s volunteer Board brings a wide range of experience and expertise to our governance. We thank them for their passion and commitment: Graeme Hamilton (president), Bernadette Schmidt (secretary), David Rickards (treasurer), Sara Phillips, Stuart Reeh, Eliza Ginnivan, and Fiona Sutton.

Mountain Pygmy Possum.

Photo: Chris Humfrey.