RESTORE THE YORKE: MARNA BANGGARA

Australia’s small, bouncy and mighty ecosystem engineers like bettongs, bandicoots and potoroos urgently need your help to survive. Please act quickly - because it won’t be Australia without them. Make a donation to help bring back the bounce.

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Something exciting is happening on Yorke Peninsula… will you be part of the biggest restoring project in Australia?

WWF-Australia is proud to be working with our partners to restore this spectacular landscape. Around 27 native species have already been lost from this area, and many of those are at risk from disappearing from Australia forever.

This is our best chance to build hope on Yorke and turn the tide on our nationwide extinction crisis. Together, we’ve set an ambitious goal: reintroduce locally extinct species across 170,000 hectares of the southern Yorke Peninsula over the next five years. This includes threatened species like brush-tailed bettong, red-tailed phascogales and bandicoots. Will you help turn the tide on Australia’s extinction crisis?

The Southern Ark project in Yorke Peninsula has been renamed to Marna Banggara, honouring the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Narungga People.

A pristine Peninsula

Located on the South Australian coast, Yorke Peninsula is home to beautiful ecosystems existing side-by-side with agricultural production. It’s a natural world filled with breathtaking and often dramatic scenery, so it’s no wonder that it’s a popular tourist destination. Though the Peninsula is spectacular today, it’s had a long history. Many decades ago, the land was torn up so local settlers could mine for chalk. Once the mines closed, many people left. While the scars are still there, the ecosystem has begun to rebuild. But introduced pests and ferals have made maintaining this landscape a real challenge.

Turning the tide

Ecological processes that sustained both the wild parts of the landscape and local agriculture have become degraded. Because of that, local industries have suffered. That’s why we’re working with the local community, farmers, businesses and the government to restore the natural ecosystem so that the landscape can thrive again.

A brush-tailed bettong © Zoos South Australia

Nature's natural garden

Meet the first of many threatened species to be reintroduced on Yorke Peninsula. Also known as woylies, the Critically Endangered brush-tailed bettong plays an important role in the natural ecosystem. These ‘soil engineers’ move seeds and organic material around which helps improve soil health. Sadly, brush-tailed bettong populations are locally extinct on Yorke Peninsula and elsewhere their numbers have crashed. The good news is that through this exciting rewilding project, we’re aiming to bend the curve and turn this around.

On August 2021, 40 pioneering brush-tailed bettongs were reintroduced to Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park on Yorke Peninsula! Find out more.

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Indigenous woylie art from Southwest Noongar, Ballardong, and Goreng artist Crystal Quartermaine. © Crystal Quartermaine/WWF-Australia

Indigenous woylie art

Show your love for this very special species and download this exclusive Indigenous woylie mobile, desktop and iPad wallpaper art from Southwest Noongar, Ballardong, and Goreng artist Crystal Quartermaine.

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