Gondwana Link is one of the largest and most ambitious conservation

Conservation

Conservation may refer to:* Conservation movement, to protect animals, fungi, plants and their habitats** Conservation biology, the science of the protection and management of biodiversity...

 projects in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

’s history.

Designed to protect and restore land across and adjoining the nation’s only global renowned biodiversity

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...

 hotspot, the completed link will be an arc of bushland

Bushland

Bushland is any area in Australia that is predominantly indigenous flora and fauna.Bushland is the term commonly used by conservation protection groups and other environmental groups as a blanket term for natural vegetation, which may cover any kind of habitat from open shrubby country with few...

 stretching for 1000 kilometres, from the wet forests in the State’s far southwest to the edge of the Nullarbor Plain

Nullarbor Plain

The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an area of about...

.

Extensive agricultural clearing in parts of this region has fragmented the landscape. But across the Gondwana Link pathway, much of the bushland remains.

Greening Australia

Greening Australia

Greening Australia is an Australian environmental organisation, founded in 1982, the International Year of the Tree, to protect, restore and conserve Australia's native vegetation...

 and Bush Heritage Australia

Bush Heritage Australia

Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that operates throughout Australia. It was previously known as the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, which is still its legal name. It purchases land, assessed as being of outstanding conservation value, from...

 are working together to reconnect the Stirling Range

Stirling Range National Park

Stirling Range National Park is a national park in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, approximately 337 km south-east of Perth.-Description:...

 and Fitzgerald River National Park

Fitzgerald River National Park

Fitzgerald River National Park is a national park in Western Australia , southeast of Perth, in the Shire of Ravensthorpe and the Shire of Jerramungup....

s, currently separated by only 70 km of mainly cleared land.

Land acquisitions and conservation covenants help protect the most ecologically important and at-risk private lands, while scientists help assemble and apply the latest revegetation

Revegetation

Revegetation is the process of replanting and rebuilding the soil of disturbed land. This may be a natural process produced by plant colonization and succession, or an artificial , accelerated process designed to repair damage to a landscape due to wildfire, mining, flood, or other cause...

 techniques to restore native bush habitats. The Indigenous Noongar people are guiding us with respect to the cultural values of the country and through their knowledge of the land.

Greening Australia has purchased or jointly purchased three properties between the National Park’s (Nowanup, Peniup

Peniup Creek Reserve

Peniup Creek Reserve is a 24.09 km2 nature reserve in south-west Western Australia. It is owned and managed by Bush Heritage Australia , by which it was purchased jointly with Greening Australia in 2007, and forms part of the project, in which BHA is a partner.-Flora and fauna:The reserve...

 and Yarrabee

Yarrabee Wesfarmers Reserve

Yarrabee Wesfarmers Reserve is a 9.23 km2 nature reserve in south-west Western Australia. It is 120 km north-east of Albany and 481 km south-east of Perth. It lies on the eastern boundary of the Stirling Range National Park, and is managed by Bush Heritage Australia , by which it was purchased in...

) and has undertaken over 1400 hectares of direct seeding and tree planting on this land, plus some 400 hectares undertaken with local farmers.

The aim is to recreate bushland that, as far as possible, mirrors the original vegetation

Vegetation

Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...

, a varied and diverse habitat which often has 400–500 plant species per property.

Approximately 600 kilograms of seed and 150 000 seedling

Seedling

thumb|Monocot and dicot seedlingsA seedling is a young plant sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle , the hypocotyl , and the cotyledons...

s have been be used at the ‘Yarrabee’ property in the largest direct seeding project we’ve undertaken.

The scale of the Gondwana Link vision represents an extraordinary leap forward in Australian conservation.