Grant will ensure wombats are completely protected by a predator-proof fence
Major improvements to a predator-proof fence, designed to protect the last natural population of the critically endangered Northern hairy-nosed wombat, will now be fully completed, thanks to a grant of more than $100,000 from The Wombat Foundation.
NQ Dry Tropics is working to secure a permanent water supply at Epping Forest and to improve the predator-proof fencing to ensure the wombats are protected within Epping Forest National Park (scientific).
The Natural Resource Management company was tasked by the Australian Government to work in conjunction with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and local Traditional Owner groups.
Funding for that project through the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust meant 11km of the 19km fence could be completed.
The Wombat Foundation grant of about $107,000 will mean the improvements to the fence can be extended all the way around the refuge.
The Wombat Foundation is a tax-deductible charity dedicated solely to the conservation of the critically-endangered Northern hairy-nosed wombat. The foundation aims to promote education and awareness and funding research and conservation projects.
Constructed in 2002 after a mob of wild dogs wreaked havoc in the burrows at Epping Forest, the fence needs repair, enhanced protection and extension.
Dr Alan Horsup, who, as a zoologist working in the Queensland Government’s Threatened Species Unit, was, in the 1990s, central to the conservation program that nursed a group of about 60 animals, mostly males, at Epping Forest National Park to a burgeoning population of more than 400 spread across three conservation sites.
Now retired and a director of The Wombat Foundation, Dr Horsup, said the fencing was vital to the continued growth of the Epping Forest population.
He said effective fencing was important to keep potential predators out, but it was also needed to keep the wombats in.
“Female wombats are the dispersers, so when a population needs to expand, it is the females that leave to find new areas,” Dr Horsup said.
And they’re the ones challenging the fence from the inside.
The fence has a “skirt” just below the surface that prevents animals either predator or wombat — from digging under the fence.
Three strands of electrified wire will further enhance the protective capability of the fence and protect from damage caused by larger animals (like cattle) when they graze right up to it.
The lowest strand would also be a deterrent to animals trying to leave the enclosure.
The permanent water source — a bore, tank and piping infrastructure — meant the wombats would also be better protected against wildfire as well as having plentiful drinking water.
Dr Horsup said the advent of two more wombat refuges near St George in south-west Queensland at Dhuny Yumba National Park (scientific), formerly the Powrunna State Forest and the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge meant the conservation program was at a very exciting stage.
NQ Dry Tropics Senior Project Officer Jaymie Rains said she was proud that The Wombat Foundation had delivered the grant.
“We can finish the project, but it’s also a measure of faith that we have been entrusted to deliver it,” Jaymie said.
The work is part of NQ Dry Tropics’ Nurturing Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats Project.
This project is funded by the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust and delivered by NQ Dry Tropics, a member of the Commonwealth Regional Delivery Paartners panel.
