Category: Brush Tail Rock Wallaby

Reports on the Brush Tail Rock Wallaby re-introduction

August 8th 2025 Update from Joe Terry Grampians Ark Coordinator

Following on from the Fire presentation we were lucky enough to meet and hear from Joe Terry. Twenty members and non-members attended.
Grampians Ark Project is led by Coordinator Joe Terry has been in this role since June 2024 having taken over from Kailee Savoia. Joe is assisted by two rangers.
Currently:
860 continuous bait stations and 160 seasonal bait stations
Deploy 15,000 1080 baits per year
Bait take of 3% average
Equates to 450 foxes controlled per year, but this is an estimate
125 foxes shot or trapped this financial year
1500 soft jaw (aim foxes) and cage trapping (aim cats) nights per year
Over 10,000 camera traps night per year – over 1 million images
75 Candid pest ejectors deployed at any one time
Ground and aerial shooting program targeting herbivores and predators
Community baiting program involving 38 neighbour properties – in the Victoria Valley
Then the 2024-2025 … Read the rest

Parks Victoria Updates May 2025

Here’s the latest update from our Grampians Ark Coordinator on the comprehensive recovery efforts following the Yarram Gap and Wallaby Rocks fires in Grampians National Park.

Background; 

The fires have burned an area of 135,677 Ha, which represents over two-thirds of the park. All six high conservation areas have been affected, including critical habitats for our priority species, which are protected under State and Federal legislation, such as the critically endangered Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby (BTRW), Long-nosed Potoroo, Southern Brown Bandicoot, Heath Mouse, and Smoky Mouse. Amid the devastation, we have found a newly discovered BTRW population at Asses Ears. This marks the first confirmed population of this critically endangered species outside its reintroduced colony in Moora.

Photo Credit Joe Terry

Key response efforts in progress and achievements.

Critically Endangered Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby

  • Ground feeding operations commenced on 17 February, involving the sling loading of bulk supplies for 17 monitored ground
… Read the rest

2025 January Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby post Grampians fires

2025 January From Sarah Cole:

Gariwerd Pest Plant Project Officer

In the coming weeks, until we have sufficient rain to stimulate the growth of foraging foods, we are supplying some supplementary macropod foods via helicopter to our Critically Endangered Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby colony. Gariwerd is home to one of only two colonies in Victoria and its numbers are estimated to be around 20 individuals. Supplementary feeding is not always recommended and only applied in very specific circumstances, we are working with DEECA, researchers and Zoos Victoria and our feeding rates and schedules are overseen by veterinarians with wildlife specialities.

We are currently working on a weekly cycle and we would like to invite FOGG members to work in partnership with Halls Gap Landcare to create the food supplies.

There are positions available for FOGG / Halls Gap Landcare members for Tuesday mornings to assist in the packing of the foods.… Read the rest

Brush – Tailed Rock Wallaby site

2019 October

Rock Wallabies:

A new ranger is looking after this (Derek Sandow) and funding has been extended. There are five animals remaining, one of them is a male. In September a new young male is planned to be introduced.

Two new males were released in September 2019.… Read the rest

Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby Site

2017 August

We hope many of you watched the recent news on TV or heard some of the interviews on radio.

A story about the Moora Creek rock-wallaby colony featured on Sunday night 12 March ABC news bulletin. It was shown in at least South Australia, QLD, NSW and possibly ACT. An online extract can be viewed in the link below.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-12/rock-wallaby-joey-gives-hope-in-western-victoria/8347322

 … Read the rest

Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Update

2013 Ryan Duffy
Team Leader, Cultural And Natural Values

Since November 2012, the Grampians rock-wallaby reintroduction has experienced its share of highs and lows. November  saw the largest single release of wallabies to date, with 17 animals being released at Moora Creek. This was part of a new strategy to introduce greater genetic diversity into the population which was anticipated to alleviate depressed breeding. This was certainly a high for the diverse partners involved in the Victorian Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby recovery team.

Soon after the release the program experienced a steady succession of mortalities. Wallabies are radio-tracked on a regular basis, mortalities are retrieved as quickly as possible in order to aid post mortem investigation. Few post mortems delivered conclusive results, however it appears fox predation is still one process threatening the reintroduced colony. This is despite Parks Victoria’s Grampians Ark fox baiting program delivering a Rolls Royce fox control program … Read the rest

Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby Update

2011 Emily Bedggood
RESEARCH: A new PhD Student has begun looking at some of the important factors impacting upon reintroduction success and failure for rock-wallabies. Rebecca West began her PhD with the University of Adelaide and Conservation Ark—Zoos SA in March 2010.
She is looking at two species of rock-wallabies; the Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies in the Grampians National Park, now in their third year of reintroduction and Black-footed Rock-wallabies (known to traditional owners as Warru) who will be reintroduced to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in South Australia this year.
Rebecca is using GPS collars to monitor the movement patterns of wallabies at each site to assess how they use the habitat and how they interact with one another. This will provide critical information on the possible capacity of each site and the effects of population density.
At both sites Rebecca is using experimental patch burns to look at how … Read the rest

Friends of Grampians Gariwerd