26 May 2018 Weekend Australian, Australia Author: Greg Bearup • Section: Magazine • Article Type: News Item Audience : 219,242 • Page: 1 • Printed size: 3593.00cm² • Market: National Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 117,337 • words: 4042 • Item ID: 958938147

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NIKKI GEMMELL | FOOD & WINE | CHLOË SEVIGNY | TRAVEL | GRETA BRADMAN | HOMES

By Greg Bearup BORDER FORCE THE RADICAL SCHEME TO SAVE OUR NATIVE CREATURES 26 May 2018 Weekend Australian, Australia Author: Greg Bearup • Section: Magazine • Article Type: News Item Audience : 219,242 • Page: 1 • Printed size: 3593.00cm² • Market: National Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 117,337 • words: 4042 • Item ID: 958938147

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LINE IN THE SAND

By Greg Bearup

Feral-proof fencing is being erected around vast tracts of Australian bush. Will it save our endangered mammals? 26 May 2018 Weekend Australian, Australia Author: Greg Bearup • Section: Magazine • Article Type: News Item Audience : 219,242 • Page: 1 • Printed size: 3593.00cm² • Market: National Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 117,337 • words: 4042 • Item ID: 958938147

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nagging chill sets in as the sun disappears ranging inside the Great Dividing Range from the into the vast desert plain. It hasn’t rained bottom of Victoria to Charters Towers in Queens- for a long time, but then time ticks to a land. Then their numbers collapsed and they were different clock out here; four seasons thought extinct, L’Hotellier says, until a small col- are for other, softer places. Here it’s ony was discovered in the Central Highlands of boom and then mostly bust. It’s like an Queensland in the 1970s. Their population is now Aopal miner who strikes it rich and for estimated to be just 2300 and three-quarters of a few gluttonous months feasts on them are here at Scotia. lobster in a waterside apartment and Next on our dodo-in-waiting tour is the greater then survives in a tin humpy for years on dry bilby. We pick one up in the spotlight near the biscuits and canned meat. The trees and the gate to the homestead and I creep in for a closer undergrowth are grizzled and stunted – the larger look. It appears that on the day the bilby was mallee gums, the size of lemon trees, have been created the engineers were away and the draughts- here since Federation. man, a budding cartoonist, took it upon himself We come to a gate that looks like the entrance to finish the job. With its enormous ears and to a prison farm. The gate is 3m high, heavy steel pointy nose it lopes along on big back legs and and mesh. A series of electrified wires runs along small paws. The bilby was once common every- the fence on either side. This impenetrable barrier, where west of the Great Divide. The last recorded enclosing 8000ha of desert scrubland in the far sighting of one in the wild in NSW was in 1912, at south-west of NSW, is designed to keep the Wagga Wagga, 700km to the east. The nearest murderers out, not in. Once inside, we step from surviving wild population is 2000km to the north, the vehicle, torches at the ready, to search for near Boulia in Queensland. Australia’s disappearing natural history. We’ve The Australian bush was once teeming with entered Scotia, a nature sanctuary on the SA these small native mammals; unique animals that border, two hours’ drive south of Broken Hill. are part of our national DNA. Dozens of these “Over there, underneath that tree,” whispers once-common species have retreated to tiny ecologist Felicity L’Hotellier. “A pair of bettongs.” I pockets and without fenced areas like this, many sneak in close enough to get a photo before they would disappear. The perpetrators of this geno- scurry off. This is a privilege very few living Aus- cide are lurking just beyond the fence: feral cats tralians have ever had, seeing burrowing bettongs and foxes, which have turned much of Australia – the short-nosed rat-kangaroo – in their natural into a marsupial graveyard. We’ve already lost 30 environment. L’Hotellier explains that the bettong mammal species since European colonisation and was once our most common marsupial – there a further 63 are in peril. were hundreds of millions of them, more than all In response to this crisis an ambitious the kangaroos. Early explorers wrote of having to mammalian ark, like this one at Scotia run by dismount from their horses lest they stumble in Australian Wildlife Conservancy, is being con- the pock-marked landscape the critters had dug. structed across the continent and on our islands. They are beautiful; like a small-headed possum There are now six major fenced sanctuaries larger that hops along daintily. They’re now clinging on, than 1000ha, 11 smaller projects and a further five with a total population of fewer than 15,000. large-scale sanctuaries under construction. Feral- We wander on in the torchlight to a hollow proof fencing is being erected around tens of thou- where some bridled nailtail wallabies are hopping sands of hectares of bush, which is then cleared of about, grazing. These handsome wallabies were cats and foxes and repopulated with endangered once found over a vast area of eastern Australia, species. A good percentage of Australia’s furry 26 May 2018 Weekend Australian, Australia Author: Greg Bearup • Section: Magazine • Article Type: News Item Audience : 219,242 • Page: 1 • Printed size: 3593.00cm² • Market: National Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 117,337 • words: 4042 • Item ID: 958938147

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fauna is essentially living on life support in these detector dog has been trained to flush them out intensive care units. They may recover to a degree of bushland so they can be shot. It will cost but will they ever be able to leave hospital and millions and may take 15 years. return to the existence they once knew? But is this Australian ark working? “I think it is,” “These reserves are kinds of glorified zoos in says the University of Sydney’s Professor Chris many ways,” says Dr Kath Tuft, who manages a Dickman, author of A Fragile Balance: The Extraorr- research sanctuary in South Australia for the dinary Story of Australian Marsupials. “It’s just a conservation group Arid Recovery. “Undoubtedly great way of providing insurance populations for they are essential for the survival of many vulner- some of these smaller to medium-sized mammals able species. But in the long term, maintaining that would otherwise go to the wall in the broader these fences is a huge commitment.” Are they Fox and cat-free exclosures landscapes.” Reintroducing animals into the wild forever viable? she asks. has been “plagued with huge problems” – in many “They’re not a freaking zoos!” barks Atticus Future feral-free areas cases the animals have all been killed – but in Fleming, CEO of Australian Wildlife Conservancy. fenced areas the survival rate rises above 80 per “The whole of Australia used to be a freaking zoo, cent, he says. “We can’t yet control foxes, and par- there was wildlife everywhere… and now much of ticularly cats, very effectively over large areas, so I the continent is a marsupial ghost town.” think until we can, [fenced sanctuaries] remain He argues that these reserves are simply one of the very important tools in the tool kit.” returning the landscape to what it was like prior to Most importantly, he says, “it buys us time”. European settlement. He’s strident in his advocacy Dickman admits there are problems with this for building more and larger reserves. He wants to model: “You’ve got a constrained population so give us something akin to the great African you need to manage the genetic base… Also, if wildlife parks, teeming with native species, with you’re isolating these populations from predators the poachers – cats and foxes – kept at bay and they’ll become even more predator-naive the shot on sight. “There have been lots and lots of longer they’re behind the fences.” And releasing examples where native species have been reintro- captive-bred animals into the sanctuaries is not duced to areas without fences… and lots of those always a complete success. AWC released a group have been costly failures.” Advocate: of captive-bred numbats at Scotia in a drought This bold plan for vast fenced reserves, backed AWC’s Atticus year and a third of them died because they didn’t Fleming by the federal and state governments, is not with- have the ability to forage in harsh conditions. But, out its critics, or its problems. And while conserva- says Dickman, from the perspective of saving tionists and scientists argue at the edges about the species the fences have been a great success. best way forward, everyone agrees that they are At South Australia’s Roxby Downs, Arid vital for the immediate survival of many species. war” on feral cats. “By 2020, I want to see two mil- Recovery has a 12,000ha fenced area, half of it cat All these arguments would dissipate, of course, lion feral cats culled, five new [feral-free] islands and fox free. In a 6000ha zone it reintroduced if something could be done about the essential and 10 new mainland ‘safe havens’ free of feral the western quoll, a native predator, to keep problem. Is there hope on the horizon to combat cats, and control measures applied across 10 mil- native species, particularly the bettongs, in bal- the relentless marauding army of feral cats? lion hectares,” he said. He floated the idea of ance and instil a fear of predators. In another introducing a virus to combat feral cats, similar to 3000ha fenced area it introduced four cats in an The appetite cats have for our native fauna is the calicivirus for rabbits. Domestic cats would attempt to breed species that are cat-resilient. insatiable. The grim reality is that as one species have to be inoculated to protect them, Hunt said. Dr John Read, Arid Recovery’s co-founder, says becomes extinct, another is plundered. A major Some of the flagged projects are now under- fenced areas should not be seen as the endgame. “I research project headed by Professor John way, including a massive expansion of AWC’s think that relying on huge fenced areas is problem- Woinarski of Charles Darwin University esti- Newhaven sanctuary outside Alice Springs to atic,” he says. “The bigger the area, the harder it is mated that feral cats, which number between 2.1 100,000ha, the world’s largest conservation to maintain.” Are we prepared to fund them for the and 6.3 million, kill 272 million native birds a year; project of its kind. Many of the states are also next 100 years? The fences are expensive to build pet cats gobble a further 61 million. A new study embarking on large-scale feral-free fencing – up to $50,000 per kilometre – and each year looking at cat predation of mammals is due to be projects – there are now 17 fenced reserves on Arid Recovery, a not-for-profit organisation, spends published soon, and will be horrifying. “Whenever the mainland, according to Dr Legge. Feral erad- between $20,000 and $40,000 on materials. “We you start doing the maths on cat predation the ication programs have begun on five large need to look at other solutions as well – there’s numbers are so massive, so horrendous, you think islands, including one to rid our third largest, more than one way to skin a cat,” says Read. ‘My God, that can’t be right’,” says Dr Sarah Legge South Australia’s Kangaroo Island, of an esti- “We’ve got to be careful about being risk- of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub. mated 3000 to 5000 feral cats. Inventive ways of averse. The most risk-averse approach is to build In 2015, this extinction crisis prompted the killing them are being trialled, including traps totally cat and fox free areas – we know they are then environment minister Greg Hunt to “declare that spray a poisonous gel onto the animal. A going to thrive in the short term; it is far riskier 26 May 2018 Weekend Australian, Australia Author: Greg Bearup • Section: Magazine • Article Type: News Item Audience : 219,242 • Page: 1 • Printed size: 3593.00cm² • Market: National Country: Australia • ASR: AUD 117,337 • words: 4042 • Item ID: 958938147

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to introduce predators in there,’’ he says. “These Edwards says. But it is many years from being reserves are super important as insurance popu- proven viable and there are the thorny issues of lations and important for research but they regulatory approval and community acceptance. shouldn’t be seen as the end point – the ultimate The technology has potentially broad applica- aim has got to be getting these animals out, living tions: in his push to eradicate malaria, for instance, in the broader landscape.” Bill Gates is spending hundreds of millions of dol- But this goal of reintegration remains extremely lars on research into gene drive in mosquitoes. “I’m difficult to achieve. Arid Recovery released hun- very energised about the potential of gene drive,” dreds of bettongs and bilbies into an unfenced area Gates said recently. “It’s the kind of breakthrough where it had conducted an intensive program of we need to support as it may prove critical.” It has trapping, shooting and baiting cats and foxes. The Clinging on: been proven to work on mosquitoes in the labora- burrowing bettong result? “Well,” says Read, “none of them survived.” tory, but not yet released into the environment. And there can be unintended consequences. In New Zealand, similar methods are proposed In 1985, on the World Heritage-listed Macquarie to combat rats and stoats, which have decimated Island – halfway between New Zealand and the country’s unique ground-dwelling birds, and Antarctica – scientists began a program to eradi- the brushtail possum, introduced from Australia, cate the feral cats that were decimating its native which causes great destruction to its forests. The fauna. But when the cats were removed, the New Zealand government has announced a goal rabbit population exploded. The wildlife on the of being “feral free by 2050” and scientists and island is now recovering after $24 million was environmentalists have been enthusiastic propo- spent eradicating the rabbits. nents of adding gene drive to their arsenal. Despite these hurdles, most states are planning But others are urging caution. Among them is or building feral-free areas. Dr Legge of the Dr Kevin Esvelt, head of the Sculpting Evolution Threatened Species Recovery Hub says there are Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- large holes in this great conservation ark that ogy in the US. “New Zealand could greatly benefit need plugging and 29 threatened species remain from releasing gene drive within its borders,” he unprotected – mainly in northern Australia, wrote in a paper. “However, without the permis- where there are feral-free islands but, as yet, no Predator naive: sion of every other country harbouring the target large fenced areas on the mainland. numbat at Scotia species it would be highly irresponsible.” In other words, how would Australia respond if New As we bump along a dirt track on the way to Zealand developed a genetically modified possum Scotia, AWC’s Atticus Fleming tells me the large that, if bred with our native species, had the poten- fenced areas are the only thing saving many tial to obliterate all of our brushtail possums? species from total annihilation. “These large feral- feral cat. There is great excitement in conserva- It seems unlikely but such biosecurity breaches free areas provide a better ecological return on tion circles that this new biological control could are not unknown. New Zealand and Australia are investment than all of the alternatives, daylight be the saviour of our native mammals. Gene drive separated by 2000km of water but that didn’t stop second.” We spend tens of millions trying to con- is an engineering technology in which the genetic the calicivirus hopping the ditch. In 1997, a group of trol cats and foxes in the landscape but nothing is code of a species is “edited” or modified to pro- disgruntled New Zealand farmers, frustrated by as cost-effective as fencing, he says. duce a particular outcome. In the case of feral cat their government’s tardy response to a severe rabbit AWC, which is funded through donations and control, cats would be engineered with a gene plague, illegally imported the virus from Australia. philanthropy, now owns or manages 4.65 million that produced only male offspring. Many of these In a coordinated and clandestine effort involving hectares for conservation purposes, with a budget cats would be released into the wild over a wide many farmers, the livers of infected rabbits were of more than $20 million and a staff of 120, includ- area and, in theory, within a few generations this harvested and blended in kitchen food processors ing more than 50 scientists. It is the largest private male-only gene would spread throughout the to, as one farmer put it, the consistency “of a fine manager of land for conservation in the world and entire population and feral cats would breed Central Otago pinot noir” and then injected into it will soon own or manage six of the large fenced themselves out of existence. AWC and the CSIRO wild rabbits they had captured. Many dozens of the sanctuaries on the mainland. have just signed an agreement to investigate how infected rabbits were then released across a wide “Ideally we need to come up with something this could be done. area; the virus bolted before authorities even knew that is close to a silver bullet and you know that’s Dr Owain Edwards, head of Environmental & it was in the yards. where the gene drive technology comes in,” Synthetic Genomics at the CSIRO, who will over- In an email, Esvelt says: “In my opinion, Fleming says. “It is the only thing on horizon.” see the research, says it is a humane solution for developing feline population control measures In an ancient landscape that’s become a feral cats, as they would simply die of natural expressly for conservation is a profound mistake… dystopian world for the small native mammals causes, unable to reproduce. It would not affect I am far more interested in ensuring that every that evolved in it, that silver bullet may be a domestic cats unless they bred with ferals. “I think kitten is born destined for a welcoming home dystopian hi-tech solution: a genetically modified it is an exciting thing for us as a long-term strategy,” than in the potential conservation benefits… more than30percent inside. In2016 and2017 cent nests of outside were active, compared with large earthen mounds, found that only three per ground-dwelling bird that incubates itseggsin the2014 of nests malleefowl, of aunique survey area outside. Asurvey she conducted in 156 inside the fence andjust44inacomparable common dunnart andsouthern ningaui, finding native Bolam’s mouse andsmallmarsupialsthe beyond. She’s conducted trapping surveys the of the fence, compared to those inthe bigbad world the different outcomes for natives that live inside nent thiswillbethe breeding stock. greater we bilbies.If are to repopulate the conti- bridled nailtail wallabiesof and10percent its of along with75 percent the of world’s population left inAustralia them – 600 of are here at Scotia, They’ve allthrived. There are only 1000numbats wallabies, andburrowing brush-tailed bettongs. locally extinct: bilbies,numbats, bridled nailtail diggings smallmammals. thousands of of Inside, itispockmarked andploughed by the the same, but outside the sandandsoil isflat. can seethe difference. The trees andshrubs are results are stark. Just walking along the fence you cat andfox-free sanctuariesinAustralia andthe the fence. Thisisone the of oldest andlargest 8000ha anderadicated allfoxes andcats inside 2002 andhaserected feral-proof fences around ’90s andcleared stock. AWC of purchased itin environmentalist DrJohn Wamsley inthe mid- meant ithad ahighconservation value. in NSWleasedfor grazing; itsshort grazing history rainfall andsandy soils, itwas one the of lastareas winter it drops to –8°C.Dueto itsisolation, poor In summer the temperature climbsto 49°Candin 65,000ha sheep station but not avery goodone. nearest bowl warm of milk.Thiswas once a it’s atScotia, Out here alongwalk tothe The science, itseems,may bethe easypart. warm burrow andevery cane toad atepidswamp. welcome home” and,presumably, every rabbit a that believes should every be“destined kitty for a against aworldwide cat andanimalrights lobby would love to eradicate them, but they willbeup theof immense damage caused by feral cats and the dire invasive speciessituation Australia.” of to many Australians… nor are they familiarwith about cats inways that may not apparent befully people elsewhere inthe world feel very strongly Ecologist Felicity L’Hotellier takes me through AWC hasreintroduced five speciesthat were The property was purchased by eccentric Esvelt isright: many Australians are very aware Licensed byCopyrightAgency.Youmayonlycopyorcommunicatethisworkwithalicence. Country: Australia Audience :219,242 Author: GregBearup Weekend Australian,Australia 26 May2018 •ASR:AUD117,337 •Page:1 •Section:Magazine fitting collars. them They’ve withGPS been in the 57,000ha Scotia outside of the fence and spentleagues months trapping feral cats andfoxes cats. A couple years of ago, andhiscol- Carter setups. But he was hunting foxes, not Foxtel. was worried he was patrolling for illegalpay TV thought he was searching for UFOs.One woman ferals along the Murray River, some people and achain. When he was doing hisPhD, tracking antenna using ahandleattached to bicycle cogs his handthrough the window to rotate the that looks like anold television antenna. He pokes ing how itwould bedeployed. field research he isdoing willbevitalindetermin- scientists develop agene drive for feral cats, the onCarter the hunt for feral cats. the If CSIRO One day at Scotia, Ihead outside the wire with stick inthe form ahand-held of radio receiver. Carter, asoftlyspoken scientist who carriesabig ing the enemy inthisecological war isDrAndrew bugger-all about the greatest threat.” billions each year on conservation andwe know says Fleming. “It isstaggering to thinkwe spend in feral cat management andferal cat ecology,” mammals andyet there’s beensolittleinvestment sus that feral cats are the greatest threat to our prisingly littleabout. “We have scientific consen- foxes inthe wild–something scienceknows sur- nests outside the fence. she could life findno signsof inthe malleefowl •Printedsize:3593.00cm² We drive into off the malleescrub insearch of On the he back histruck hasacontraption of The manwho hastaken on the know- taskof AWC isalsostudying the behaviour cats of and •words:4042 •ArticleType:NewsItem Andrew Carter On thehunt: •ItemID:958938147 •Market:National ending for many ournative of mammals.” to stop cats andfoxes, it’s not going to beahappy don’t sort something out inthe broader landscape he says. “These fences are buying ustime we but if species justhanging on by the their skinof teeth,” mistic” about gene drive. “Theremanyare so something important. Andhe’s “cautiously opti- trying to protect these uniqueanimalshe’s doing the bushanditsnative wildlife andhe feels that in near the Grampians inVictoria. He’s always loved sipping acool beer, tellsme Carter he grew up methods are for reducing their impact,” he says. we don’t really know how effective ourcurrent dollars millions of controlling cats andfoxes but and and fox behaviour inthe wild.“We spendmillions year. It willrevolutionise the understanding cat of costing $4000, willbedeployed inthe fieldthis we’ll getanemailwithallthe data.” The collars, each data straight upto asatellite andevery few days develop ahi-tech collar for cats. “It willsendthe some specieswhen exposed to cats andfoxes? natives canbereintroduced, or isthere no hope for trol –canthe numbers bereduced to alevel where He isalsoresearching the cat of effects andfox con- numbers goup, andisthat worse for native species? cover what happenswhen you remove foxes: do cat foxes inthe same area are being monitored to dis- andweBen head back to the base. cat’s tracks, anhour but there’s afterhalf no signof through headphones. We occasionally spot the listeningscrub withCarter to aradio signal We findBen’s footprints andfollow them into the highlights how difficultitwould beto shoot one. an incredibly time-consuming anddifficulttask.It four cats, apart from those he’s trapped,which is years working at Scotia he’s only ever seenthree or disappearing into the scrub. says Carter inallhis track about 30maway, looking at uswarily before a largeblack cat withcollar, wanders across the and then we come face to face withthe killer. Ben, We stop the vehicle andhe loads uphisequipment for easyreference inthe field,” he says sheepishly. signal. “It’s Ben.” Hiscats have names? “Ionly do it order to download the information from itsGPS. held antenna the to getwithin50mof cat or fox in then walk through the scrub carrying the hand- up the signalfrom the antenna and on histruck ting that information isnot easy. hasto pick Carter information they receive But from get- the GPS. and sandplots andmatching that against the tracking the behaviour both of using fieldcameras That night, aswe siton abalcony at Scotia, hasbeenworkingCarter withaUScompany to Carter’s work isvital:for the firsttime cats and We drive along sanddunes until he picksupa ● Page 6of

PHOTOGRAPHY: AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY; AMOS AIKMAN; STEFANIE ZINGSHEIM; WAYNE LAWLER / AWC.. MAP COURTESY THREATENED SPECIES RECOVERY HUB