Plants and Animals

Southern Ark

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Southern Ark aims to facilitate the recovery of native mammals, birds and reptiles across approximately one million hectares of public land in far East Gippsland through the establishment of an integrated, large-scale and on-going fox control program. A similar initiative, Glenelg Ark, is being undertaken is south west Victoria. What's new in Southern Ark? Several community members came along to a Southern Ark forum in December 2008 where they learned about the research developments and baiting operations of the project. Approximately 60 people arrived and listened to presentations on feral cats, Southern Ark monitoring, and how fox baiting works. The highlight occurred the following morning when a few lucky individuals had the opportunity to participate in the Southern Ark monitoring program at Cape Conran. In March 2009 a number of first-year Conservation and Land Management students from the Forestech campus of East Gippsland TAFE saw first-hand the value of ongoing fox control at Cape Conran in Far East Gippsland. Accompanying members of the Department of Sustainability & Environment’s Southern Ark team, the students got the opportunity to capture, handle, measure and weigh over a dozen Long-nosed Potoroos that had been caught during the previous night in cage-traps baited with a tasty mixture of rolled oats and peanut butter. Southern Ark Operations Manager, Andrew Murray, said “It’s really important that we give these students the chance to see and handle potoroos, and give them an understanding about the enormous benefit that fox control has for our wildlife. The Southern Ark team currently has a number of members who have studied at Forestech, and this institution continues to be a training ground for a lot of local people gaining employment within government agencies in East Gippsland.” Here are some pictures of their progress. For further information on Southern Ark see Q and A's or click on any of the information brochures and fact sheets below. For enquiries regarding pet dogs in the East Gippsland bush see below for a brochure on how to look after your dog in the East Gippsland bush. This brochure was developed in conjunction with local vets. Fact Sheets Fact Sheet: Biodiversity Benefits of Southern Ark(PDF - 78 Kb) Fact Sheet: Landholders(PDF - 61 Kb) Fact Sheet: Species in East Gippsland(PDF - 59 Kb) Fact Sheet: biodiversity and tourism(PDF - 57 Kb) Brochures Bringing Back Biodiversity(PDF - 231 KB) Bringing back the biodiversity: The Diggers(PDF - 177 KB) Bringing back the biodiversity: The Hunters(PDF - 161 KB) Looking after your dog in the East Gippsland bush (PDF - 206 Kb) Southern Ark Project Brochure (PDF - 347 Kb) Newsletters Southern Ark Newsletter - June 2007 (PDF - 443 Kb) Southern Ark Newsletter - May 2006 (PDF - 282 Kb) Southern Ark Newsletter - September 2004 (PDF - 1.1 Mb)

Project Deliverance (prelude to Southern Ark)

‘Project Deliverance’ (1998-2003) was designed to determine the response of native mammals living in forest ecosystems in south-eastern Australia to an ongoing effective baiting program undertaken to reduce the population of the introduced Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes). The results have proved useful in the design of its successor ‘Southern Ark’.

Project Deliverance - final report (PDF - 2.2 Mb)