WildCountry in the West: Gondwana Link

South western Australia is internationally renowned for its ecological diversity. Tens of millions of years of evolutionary interaction across some of the Earth's oldest land surfaces has created a major 'biodiversity hotspot'. Sadly, massive clearing of vegetation for agriculture has dismantled the old evolutionary pathways and, due to fragmentation, climate change and land degradation, the long-term viability of much of the region's biodiversity is in doubt.

The scale of the challenge, and the unique opportunities that currently exist, make this region the perfect choice for WA's first WildCountry project — Gondwana Link.

The Gondwana Link Project is an initiative that will effectively link the ecosystems of inland Western Australia with the wetter forests of the south west corner. It aims to restore ecological connectivity from the woodlands of WA's Goldfields, via five of the region's significant wild places, to the karri and jarrah forests of the Margaret River area — a distance of almost 1,000 kilometres.

This is a cooperative effort from a broad range of community and non-government organisations. Initially, it is comprised of The Wilderness Society, Greening Australia, Fitzgerald Biosphere Group, Friends of the Fitzgerald, Mallee Fowl Preservation Group, and the Australian Bush Heritage Fund. A full-time Project Coordinator has been employed.

Collectively, the partner organisations bring together a wide spectrum of conservation strategies, including public advocacy, revegetation and landcare, land purchase and property covenanting, and the provision of incentives for conservation on private land. By working collectively to a long-term plan, each group's conservation efforts will be complementary — so that, when completed, there will be protected bush from Margaret River to Kalgoorlie and beyond.

At the western end of the project, the boundaries of the new 'old growth forest' National Parks (won as a result of the last State election) are being negotiated with WildCountry objectives in mind. Elsewhere, existing National Parks have been defended from mining and roading, and intensive landcare actions are now being undertaken.

The Gondwana Link Project, a vital part of the nation-wide WildCountry campaign, represents a new way forward for conservation in Australia. It demonstrates that, by working together, we can 'right the wrongs' of the past and protect our great wild places forever.

Read more about WildCountry

The Gondwana Link vision is actively supported by The Nature Conservancy