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In far South-West Victoria, near the South Australian border, west of the Gariwerd-Grampians and south from the Little Desert National Park to the Cobboboonee near the sea, lowland forests meet and give way to the drier forests and woodlands of stringy bark and gums that flourish on the edges of inland deserts. In this region where species mix and the Great Dividing Range ends or begins, depending on your perspective, rare plants and animals are in urgent need of a habitat lifeline.

	This little Swamp Antechinus was found and photographed during a scientific survey in the Cobboboonee Forest. Doug Phillips

Why? In far South-West Victoria the changes to the land, its forests, woodlands and wetlands are some of the most severe in the whole state. In the main river basins, the Glenelg-Hopkins and the Wimmera, native vegetation cover is down to less than 13%. This means over 86% of the land is now used for food and wood crops, pasture and other industrial activities. In this situation many wild animals have become locally extinct and others are declining.

So the question arises; how do we give our rare and threatened wild creatures and plants in the far South-West places to live and survive in this time of climate change? Where do they eat and bring up their young?

Less than 13% of native vegetation remains

In order to give a secure lifeline to the plants and animals of the region there needs to be a protected and connected area of forests and woodlands between the sea near Portland and the Little Desert-Gariwerd-Grampians. This protection will enable species to move and migrate across the landscape as climate change takes effect.

The protection of this public land will add value to the efforts of land holders protecting the remnant gum, bulokes and stringybarks on their properties in the far South-west. The State Government can and should do it now.

This comprehensive nature conservation system will protect what is left of the tall lowland forests of the South and the gum and stringybark woodlands of the North.

Such a Great South-West Parks System will include:

	Shane Howard Sings For the South-west

• A Cobboboonee National Park in its own right - the Cobboboonee National Park needs to be large in order to function as a living ecosystem and help address the highly broken up nature of far South-West Victoria's remaining native forests
• Protecting public land habitat of the many threatened species in the South-west - between Portland and the Little Desert National Park–including the endangered Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo
• These forests and woodlands are of local, state and national significance and are at a point in history when they can be both conserved for the threatened wild creatures and flora and continue to be excellent places for human recreation and tourism.

Masked Owl. Rare in South-West Victoria, it needs large, old trees to bring up its young.