Introducing the Great Western Woodlands

Equivalent to Africa’s Serengeti or South America’s Amazon, the Great Western Woodlands is an internationally significant area of great biological richness.

Looking down the rabbit-proof fence. Photo: Alexander Watson

Tall Mulla Mulla (Ptilotus exaltatus). Photo: Barbara Madden

Aftermath of fire in the woodlands. Photo: Alexander Watson

This covers almost 16 million hectares, or an area the size of England, and is the continuous band of vegetation spanning the edge of the Western Australian ‘Wheatbelt’ to the Mulga country in north - the inland deserts to the northeast and the nullabour plain to the east.

An intact landscape

In other areas of southern Western Australia and eastern Australia, similar ecosystems have been replaced with agriculturally lands. In fact, landscapes that span equivalent climatic conditions in South America, North America, Africa, Asia and Europe have all experienced a heavy human footprint. Almost all of their original vegetation has been replaced with agriculture and urban sprawl, has been heavily logged for timber and firewood and/or has been heavily grazed by animals including cattle and goats. In contrast, the Great Western Woodlands remain relatively intact and are therefore internationally significant with the natural and cultural values that exist in this landscape.

Yet, this wilderness is under assault due to a lack of management.

Poor fire management, feral animals, weeds, and human activities including indiscriminate road construction are all having an impact.

The Grass is Greener on the Other Side of the Fence

Made famous in both novel and film, the 3,000 kilometres of Rabbit Proof Fence stands testimony to great human endeavours. Its construction was remarkable; walking its length was historic, and to save the land beyond its southern reaches is a story that The Wilderness Society is helping to write.

Last century the scramble to ‘open up’ farmland in the southern Wheatbelt came to an abrupt halt at the Rabbit Proof Fence. Beyond the Rabbit Proof Fence, beyond the salinity and devastation wrought by large-scale agriculture, lies a little-known but extraordinary place – the most pristine temperate woodland in the world.

The Great Western Woodlands area in South-Western WA

Gondwana Link

Forming one of the core wilderness areas of the Gondwana Link vision to protect and reconnect the South West’s great wild places, this area is a spectacular mosaic of vegetation communities, interspersed with islands of granite rock and natural salt lakes. Some sixteen million hectares in size, it represents just two per cent of Australia’s land mass but is home to almost 30 per cent of its known plant species. Home to over one third of Australia’s different Eucalypts: nowhere else in the world do so many different tall trees grow in such an arid climate.

This extraordinary environment lies below the radar of any government vision or plan of management. Mismanagement of fires, feral animals, weeds and unchecked human activities threaten to destroy many of the regions natural and cultural values.

Without a science-based, best-practice plan for managing the Great Western Woodlands, which ensures both conservation and sustainable resource use, we may lose one of the great wild places of Australia before we ever really knew it was there.

Arguably the biggest threat to the woodlands is fire management – or mismanagement.

In the last 10 years much the region has been disturbed by large ‘wildfires’. Some of these fires were started by lightning strikes, others were deliberate.  Although fire disturbance is a ‘natural’ part of the landscape, large wildfires are not. Indigenous burning regimes were deliberately done at small scales to create a mosaic of post-fire vegetation across the landscape.  In contrast to this low-intensity, small scale fire regime, current fire management often results in large wildfires that could lead to the local extinction of countless plants and animals. Unfortunately, little is known of the unique biodiversity that occurs in the woodlands or how it responds to fire and other threats.

The Wilderness Society is currently working with universities as well as local and indigenous communities to promote scientific research that will provide a better understanding of how we can ensure the long-term conservation of this world-class wilderness.

The campaign to protect the Great Western Woodlands is gaining momentum. We know that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, and we are working to keep it green.

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