Victorian lowland temperate native grasslands are among the most endangered ecosystems globally. At broad scale, they are classified into two primary climatic types: semi-arid and mesic lowland grasslands, and both habitats are threatened from dramatic habitat destruction, invasive species and improper management. Upon arrival to Australia in the early 1800s, European colonists identified the fertile Victorian grasslands as prime agricultural land, making temperate grasslands and grassy woodlands among the first Australian ecosystems to be cleared for farming. These ecosystems have continued to suffer from agricultural and urban development, as well as the introduction of invasive predators and competitors, and remaining grassland fragments are often small, isolated and degraded. This ecosystem devastation has reduced the distribution and abundance of native species, and has driven many mammal species to local, mainland or total extinction. There is a single remaining small marsupial of the Victorian temperate grasslands that has not yet met extinction: the fat-tailed dunnart. Here we synthesise historical and contemporary drivers of Victorian temperate grassland loss, examine implications for the fat-tailed dunnart and propose priority conservation. If considerable action (particularly from the federal and state governments) is not implemented to assist conservation and restoration of these ecosystems, further extinction of irreplaceable species, like the fat-tailed dunnart, are imminent.
Victoria’s diverse and iconic marsupials face an uncertain future due to a number of factors, including climate change, feral predation and habitat loss. In this important collection of papers, leading scientists discuss some of these impacts and how to manage and mitigate them to ensure species survival. Photograph by Doug Gimsey. This article belongs to the collection: Marsupials in Victoria: survival in the face of current and future threats.
Victoria is home to 13 of the 72 living marsupial carnivores belonging to the family Dasyuridae. These species exhibit a remarkable range of sizes, from the minute Giles’ Planigale (Planigale gilesi) weighing ~6 g to the robust Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus), which can reach up to 5 kg. They occur in a wide range of habitats across the state, range in conservation status from least concern to extinct in the wild, and exhibit some interesting and unusual reproductive traits. This paper provides concise life histories, highlights the risks to these ecologically integral species from a rapidly changing environment, and outlines conservation efforts to ensure the continued survival of marsupial carnivores in Victoria. We aim to present this information in an accessible and easily usable format across species to provide a comprehensive understanding of their distinct challenges and conservation needs.
Wildlife surveys are essential for monitoring populations, informing conservation actions, and assessing impacts of environmental change and management activities. Emerging technologies such as drones are increasingly used for habitat mapping and wildlife detection and monitoring, offering advantages, including greater survey coverage and improved detection rates, and are therefore attractive for wildlife research and conservation efforts. However, their increased application raises important animal welfare concerns, as drones may introduce novel stimuli such as noise, rotor downwash or artificial illumination that may provoke behavioural disturbance. Using over 900 thermal-infrared video recordings collected during drone surveys for nocturnal arboreal mammals in temperate Eucalyptus forests of south-eastern Australia, we assessed whether animals noticed the drone and exhibited behavioural changes, including those indicative of vigilance. These observations were compared with behaviour recorded during traditional ground-based spotlighting surveys. Across all species observed, behavioural responses to drone observation were minimal – only 17% of individuals appeared to notice the drone and 11% exhibited vigilant behaviour, with no evidence of flight responses. By contrast, spotlighting elicited vigilance in most animals, with individuals being over 19 times more likely to remain calm under drone observation than under spotlighting. Species-specific analyses showed that generalist species such as common ringtail possums (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) and brushtail possums (Trichosurus spp.) displayed very low vigilance during drone flights, whereas gliding and acoustically communicative species such as southern greater gliders (Petauroides volans) and yellow-bellied gliders (Petaurus australis) were more sensitive but still considerably less reactive than during spotlighting. Seasonal variation also influenced responses, with vigilance highest in autumn – often associated with breeding activity in arboreal marsupials – and lowest in spring. Our findings indicate that drone-based survey methods provide an effective and minimally invasive approach for monitoring arboreal mammals while maintaining ethical survey standards and reliable behavioural data.
Wildlife Victoria (WV) provides emergency response services for injured, sick or orphaned wildlife across the state of Victoria, Australia. Using 6 years of WV case data (January 2020–December 2025), this paper presents trends in marsupial rescue requests to identify spatial, seasonal and cause-related patterns. A total of 209,559 marsupial cases across 42 species were recorded. Case numbers increased annually, with the most frequent species being eastern grey kangaroos, common ringtail possums and common brushtail possums. Vehicle collisions represented the predominant cause of rescue cases (33.83%), followed by ‘found on ground’ and injury-related cases. Geographic distribution showed concentration in peri-urban municipalities near Melbourne. The analysis underscores growing wildlife–human interactions and highlights the need for coordinated data collection and management frameworks linking rescue, conservation and policy.
The most important single recovery action for Leadbeater's possum has occurred - the end of native forest logging in Victoria. And yet the future of this small, enigmatic possum is far from secure. The reduced abundance of hollow-bearing trees, bushfires and climate change all present challenges ahead. Camera traps have greatly increased our ability to reliably detect the species, and extensive surveys conducted since the Black Saturday fires in 2009 indicate populations have recovered well in some parts of the Central Highlands. The great vulnerability of the species is to successive large fires with a short interval (≤ 50 years), as could occur during the next century with climate change.
Emergencies are increasing in frequency, magnitude and severity, affecting wildlife populations on a global scale. In Victoria, disasters, including bushfires, floods, heat waves and droughts, affect marsupial populations and the survival of species, with issues expected to increase due to climate and other anthropomorphic changes. Many impacts from disasters are obvious, including animal injury, mortality and displacement, resource loss, habitat destruction and fragmentation, and increased risks from introduced predators. However, many impacts that could significantly affect health and recovery potential for individual animals to entire species – including genetic loss, behaviour change, stress and impacts outside declared emergency areas – are less visible and thus may receive reduced focus and investment. Here, I discuss both visible and less visible impacts of disasters on Victoria’s marsupials, and mitigation strategies required to protect and recover species. More long-term surveys and monitoring, evidence-based actions, adaptive management and preparation for emergencies, underpinned by increased and ongoing investment, are required to meet the challenges of increasing disasters. Greater support to promote healthy wildlife populations and habitats and improve their resilience now will help to protect Victoria’s diverse and remarkable marsupials into the future.
Two new fossil species of Amphithyris Thomson, 1918 are described from the Late Eocene - earliest Oligocene Alma Group strata near Oamaru, North Otago, New Zealand. The two fossil species lived at mid to outer shelf depths. One of the new species has unusual teeth and socket ridges for platidiids. These are the first reported examples of fossil Amphithyris globally.
Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus Goldfuss, 1817) in Victoria have a complex history of near-extirpation, reintroduction, and population recovery. Today, their abundance varies considerably throughout their Victorian range, with some regions supporting low-density populations and others having unsustainably high densities. Although considered relatively secure compared with northern populations, Victoria’s koalas not only face the same threats, but also additional challenges associated with low genetic diversity, overabundance, and commercial blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) plantations. Management actions to conserve low-density populations, improve genetic diversity, mitigate the ecological and poor welfare consequences of overabundance, and address welfare and landscape-scale issues associated with blue gum plantations are required. However, management is often reactive, constrained by limited funding, and hindered by public perceptions and misinformation propagated through news and social media. Here, we review the legacy of past management, the current distribution and abundance of koalas in Victoria, and key threats and challenges. We argue that effective future management requires population and disease monitoring, proactive strategies to prevent overabundance crises, habitat management, and transparent communication with the public to achieve balanced outcomes for koala welfare, populations and habitat.
The mainland Eastern Barred Bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) has been the subject of a recovery effort since 1988 due to threats posed by introduced predators and habitat destruction. Despite a concerted effort to recover the species, they came perilously close to extinction in the early 2000s. A change of tactics and securing populations in multiple fox-free Safe havens was required to save the species from imminent extinction. Through the release of Eastern barred bandicoots onto Phillip and French Islands, made possible from support from the local island communities, the trajectory of Eastern Barred Bandicoots has been reversed. They are now widespread and abundant across both islands, and in 2021 were reclassified from 'Extinct in the Wild' to 'Endangered' largely due to these island releases. However, this does not mean that the Eastern Barred Bandicoot is secure and no longer requires management. As mainland Eastern barred bandicoots only occur within Safe havens, which have a history of intermittent incursions and failure, it is essential that sites remain vigilantly monitored and managed to secure the species and the hard-won conservation gains. We document the lengthy process of releasing Eastern Barred Bandicoots onto Victoria's two largest islands including assessing suitability, garnering community support and managing uncertainties.
Victoria currently supports nine species of macropods (kangaroos, wallabies and rat-kangaroos). Previously, a wave of extinction in the late Pleistocene selected against the macropod megafauna, including huge, short-faced kangaroos. European colonisation brought about a second wave of extinction, which selected against the smallest species that were vulnerable to habitat change and predation by introduced predators. Two members of the Potoroidae, the long-nosed potoroo and long-footed potoroo, still occur in Victoria, occupying habitats with dense understoreys and feeding mainly on hypogeal fungi. Victoria also supports seven members of the Macropodidae. Two of these, the brush-tailed rock wallaby and eastern wallaroo have highly restricted distributions and small populations and are listed as endangered in Victoria. In contrast, the red-necked wallaby and swamp wallaby are widespread and common, and the latter is expanding its range north-westwards. Of the three kangaroo species, the red kangaroo is restricted to the north-west of the state. The eastern grey kangaroo and western grey kangaroo are widespread and common, with extensive overlap in their ranges. Eastern grey kangaroos number over 2 million in Victoria and have reached overabundance in some areas, with negative impacts on animal welfare, threatened wildlife and plant communities.
The bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus) is a charismatic species, both loved for its chubby charm and loathed as a bulldozer of the bush. We review the biology and management of this species, with a particular focus on the Victorian population. The bare-nosed wombat is the largest burrowing herbivore in the world, with a diet consisting almost entirely of grass. Wombats have a robust body and are sexually monomorphic in size. In Victoria, wombats occur over a range of habitats and elevations, mostly in the east of the state. The sole statewide population survey estimated a total of 432,595 wombats in 2020, with only 1000 in the far southwest. Wombats breed slowly, taking more than a year to raise a single young. Female offspring then leave the natal burrow, and our field data show that their dispersal movements can be as far as 14 km. Burrowing activity can have a serious impact on farm paddocks, fences and buildings, and grazing pressure can damage plantings and inhibit ecosystem recovery. As a result, wombats were declared ‘unprotected’ in much of eastern Victoria until 2020, but many are still culled under permit to alleviate these impacts. On the other hand, wombats are injured and killed by vehicles and are vulnerable to sarcoptic mange infections. Despite these and other pressures, the Victorian population appears to be secure.
Digging mammals play key functional roles in ecosystem processes, facilitating soil turnover, seed germination and dispersal of fungal spores linked with forest health and productivity. These species have been disproportionately affected by the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cat (Felis catus), resulting in lost ecosystem functions. Digging mammals are further affected by habitat destruction and degradation, inappropriate fire regimes, climate change and the compounding, interactive effects of these processes on population resilience. We present the case of the long-nosed potoroo in Victoria (Potorous tridactylus trisulcatus) with the aim of identifying the species’ contrasting status in different landscapes, conservation value and challenges therein. We draw from research across different bioregions, comparing flourishing populations with those close to local extinction. We highlight the interactive impacts of fire regimes and invasive predators in the context of a changing climate causing declines in long-nosed potoroo, while emphasising the importance of protecting suitable habitat that enables the species to evade invasive predators. We provide future directions to manage long-nosed potoroo in Victoria. More strategic conservation actions – including predator management, integration of short-range translocations and improved fire management and prevention strategies – are required to ensure species persistence and resilience in the face of climate change.
Understanding the former distribution and habitat of relictual species is important for conservation planning, for example, in the design of re-introduction programs. This is true even for extinct taxa because such knowledge improves understanding of what has been lost and the causes of those losses, thereby benefiting projects aimed at reconstructing previous biotic communities and ecological processes. This paper examines the available information about the 12 known museum specimens and remarkably few documented sightings of the extinct eastern subspecies of the pig-footed bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus). Ten specimens were collected in the 22 years between 1836 and 1857 from plains bordering the mid- to lower-Murray River and the lower Darling River, and the mid-reaches of the Bogan River in central northern New South Wales. New information is presented about the provenance of the remaining two specimens – both have uncertain collection localities and dates but may have come from the Wimmera District of western Victoria, a more temperate region than previously considered to be within the distributional range of the subspecies. The scant available evidence suggests that the south-eastern pig-footed bandicoot inhabited semi-arid woodlands in which the understorey was dominated by grasses or chenopods. The taxon is emblematic of the almost total loss of small- to medium-sized terrestrial mammals from north-western Victoria and inland New South Wales during the mid-19th Century.
Artificial hollows (predominantly nest boxes) have been used over many decades to study Australian marsupials that require tree hollows for shelter and for breeding. The literature documenting such studies was last reviewed 20 years ago. The present study reviews the studies published in the interim with an aim to (1) synthesise this new literature, (2) describe and evaluate the most frequently studied topics, and (3) evaluate the progress that has been made towards using artificial hollows to manage and conserve tree hollow-using marsupials. I documented 75 studies published between 2006 and 2025, of which 87% had a research focus rather than a management focus. Surprisingly, 58 of the 75 studies were published in the past 10 years. This period saw the introduction in Australia of chainsaw-carved hollows and drilled hollows. A key intention of 14 studies was to use artificial hollows as research tools, enabling access to difficult to capture or observe species, as well as to gain insight into their micro- and macro-habitat preferences. Twenty studies investigated the temperature profiles within artificial hollows, contrasting across types as well as with natural hollows. Consistent findings include that temperatures within nest boxes closely track ambient temperature, including its extremes, whereas those in chainsaw hollows in live trees were buffered and mimic those within natural hollows in live tree trunks. However, chainsaw hollows and natural hollows in dead trees showed poor buffering of ambient temperature. A study that contrasted squirrel gliders (Petaurus norfolcensis) using nest boxes and tree hollows with those using only tree hollows found higher survival among those individuals using nest boxes, suggesting hollow quality has various attributes in addition to the thermal environment. The maintenance of artificial hollows has been advanced previously as a serious concern if they are to be used in a conservation context. Recent studies show all types of artificial hollow require periodic maintenance. Studies of nest boxes over 6–30 years suggest that minor intervention associated with animal monitoring is sufficient. Monitoring of chainsaw hollows over 2–7 years has shown that the entrances to some hollows may become occluded and require periodic intervention. It is hypothesised that artificial hollows will be used more frequently where natural hollows are scarce. This has not been investigated in an experimental context; however, across 11 studies in which relative hollow density could be scored as high or low, higher use of artificial hollows was recorded where density of natural hollows was low. This emphasises the need to evaluate natural hollow deficiencies before embarking on projects that install artificial hollows to achieve conservation outcomes. The only studies in the review period where artificial hollows were installed to provide population support were in the context of animal translocations. Further studies using artificial hollows to achieve population support are required to progress it as a conservation action for hollow-dependent marsupials.
The Gippsland Lakes region is located on Gunaikurnai Country and is principally within the territories of the Tatungalung and Krauatungalung clans. It contains arguably the best-preserved barrier island sequence in Australia that represents deposition during sea level highstands dating back to at least Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7. The beach barrier and enclosed estuarine sequences are also a significant economic and social asset for Victoria. This review brings together and integrates the geomorphic research on the barriers initiated with the doctoral studies of the late Eric Bird in the mid-20th century. The Gippsland Lakes form within the depressions between three barrier sequences – the Prior Barrier (MIS 7), Inner Barrier (MIS 5) and Outer Barrier (MIS 1). Ninety Mile Beach occurs on the seaward edge of the Outer Barrier and represents a littoral sediment transport system that extends from Corner Inlet, north through the region, and eventually into New South Wales. The Outer Barrier and Ninety Mile Beach are highly dynamic environments with major phases of reworking occurring in the past 200 years related to changing land management practices. In the past few decades it appears that the system is now trending towards erosion, with instances of wave overwash and landward dune rollover becoming more apparent. To understand whether the system has reached a tipping point towards long-term erosion (barrier transgression) it is urgent for the current sedimentary system to be understood in much greater detail and modelling undertaking on future trajectories of shoreline change. This research is needed to understand the resilience of the system to climate change at the spatial scale needed to properly ‘care for Country’.
The environmental health of the Gippsland Lakes substantially depends on freshwater inflows. The quantity and quality of this water is being reduced by the impacts of agriculture, mining, and water transfers to Melbourne. These impacts will be exacerbated by both the direct impacts of climate change and thirsty measures adopted by society to respond to climate change. Changes in water use and increased investment in natural resources management are needed to effectively adapt.
The Gippsland Lakes is 1 of 12 wetland systems in Victoria listed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, with waterbird abundance and species diversity being major contributing factors toward the nomination (Criteria 5 and 6). Waterbird monitoring in the Gippsland Lakes region has been running since the 1980s. The key programs are BirdLife Australia’s Beach-nesting Birds program and Australian Shorebird Monitoring Program, the Gippsland Lakes Important Bird Area monitoring program and the Latham’s Snipe Project. Overall, these programs have revealed variable patterns in abundances across species, with some appearing to decline and others likely to be moving out of the Gippsland Lakes system in wet years. Apparent population decreases may reflect changes in foraging habitat suitability but gaps in survey coverage mean that some birds are almost certainly being missed during monitoring. Investment to support a comprehensive assessment of all data sources to determine the specific nature of apparent species’ trends is urgently required.
The Gippsland Lakes form Australia’s largest estuary and suffer periodic blooms of toxic cyanobacteria that close the waterway for recreation and fishing. Here we discuss the underlying causes and sequence of events that lead to bloom formation, and the consequences as well as the history of these blooms prior to European colonisation. Efforts to prevent blooms have focused on catchment nutrient reduction efforts and we believe this is the most sensible approach, albeit one that is costly and long term.
