Rewilding: Nation-leading program right here in SA

The incredible work at Marna Banggara is drawing lots of attention this month, and for good reason. 

As word about the project’s foundational conservation approach and successes spreads, focus is now turning to securing the partnerships and investment needed to take the next exciting step: bringing bilbies back to Yorke Peninsula.

In recent months, the project team has been out meeting with politicians, potential funding partners and conservation leaders to showcase the outcomes already being achieved. Following the successful reintroduction of the brush-tailed bettong (yalgi in the traditional language of the area), attention is now turning to expanding the project's impact through the return of another iconic threatened species.

It has been great to see movers and shakers from conservation groups and all sides of politics taking an active interest, including movers and shakers such as Peter Garrett AM, Chair of Landcare Australia, Karen Grogan, Senator for SA, and federal Minister for the Environment and Water Murray Watt, to name just a few.

Back home in SA, just this week our own Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Emily Bourke MLC deftly championed the work in parliament when asked a question in legislative council about how investment in landscape-scale conservation is supporting biodiversity, regional communities and providing a healthy environmental future for South Australia.

She highlighted the work at Marna Banggara as a case in point, and said whilst the return of the bilby to the landscape is exciting, so, too, is Marna Banggara's positive impact on the surviving populations of locally threatened birds, the malleefowl, mallee whipbird and hooded plovers, whose populations have all benefited through this project.

The attention comes at an exciting time, with planning well underway for the proposed reintroduction of the greater bilby. If successful, it will mark a nationally significant conservation milestone, restoring one of Australia's most iconic threatened species to a large-scale predator-managed landscape.

While the return of the bilby is an exciting prospect, it is only one chapter in a much larger success story.

Marna Banggara has already delivered long-term benefits for biodiversity, threatened species recovery and landscape health, contributing to both state and national conservation goals while fostering strong partnerships between Traditional Owners, landholders, community members and conservation organisations.

Meaning "healthy, prosperous country" in Narungga language, the success of the ambitious landscape-scale rewilding initiative on southern Yorke Peninsula is supercharged by the active network of partners working together restore healthy ecosystems, recover threatened species and create lasting environmental, cultural and community benefits for generations to come.

The project is led by the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board in partnership with Narungga Nation, government agencies, conservation organisations, farmers and the wider community.

These partners share a common goal: creating healthier ecosystems and more prosperous communities, outcomes this project delivers in spades.

The opportunity is clear. The next step is securing the investment needed to make it happen.