Climate Change and Sustainability Minister, Kate Jones joined forces with Dreamworld’s General Manager Life Sciences, Al Mucci and Save the Bilby Founder, Frank Manthey when they presented a $20,000 cheque to Griffith University on Friday 10 September.The cheque was presented to Associate Professor Jean-Marc Hero for research into the ecological processes existing in Currawinya National Park.
Image left to right: Frank Manthey (Save the Bilby Founder), Noel Dempsey (Dreamworld CEO), Dawn Fraser (Save the Bilby), Kate Jones (Climate Change and Sustainabilty Minister), Jean-Marc Hero (Environmental Futures Centre), Al Mucci (Dreamworld Life Sciences GM). Photography: Nick Rakotopare
Research conducted by Associate Professor Hero and his team is part of the Program for Planned Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (PPBio) project initiated by Dr Hero – Deputy Director of the Environmental Futures Centre at Griffith University.
Currawinya will join the PPBio network of Long-Tern Ecological Research (LTER) Sites for measuring and monitoring the impacts of climate change on Queensland’s biodiversity.
LTER plots will be used to monitor biodiversity and ecosystem condition both within the predator exclusion fence (with bilby’s) and outside the fence. This will allow us to examine the feasibility of Curawinya supporting bilby’s after the fence has been removed.
Currawinya will join other LTER sites in Queensland (Karawatha near Brisbane and Lake Broadwater near Dalby) in an international PPBio LTER system designed for collecting standardised and hence comparable data essential for monitoring ecosystem response to climate change.
This project will assist in defining improved sustainability methods in the Currawinya National Park, ensuring that the bilby population continues to grow to a healthy number.
With only 600 bilbies estimated to remain in the wild Dreamworld was the first non-government institution to be given approval to breed bilbies for the captive release program.Working in conjunction with the Bilby Brothers, Frank Manthey and Peter McRae, in addition to the Department of Environment and Research Management (DERM) the theme park hopes to assist in building an insurance population against the species extinction.
Today, bilby tracking has shown that the population in Currawinya National Park has grown to more than 50, making up almost 10% of the entire world population.
The funding coincides with the nation’s Save the Bilby day which was held on Sunday 12 September.