“The only way that we can protect the ‘good bush’ and contain affected areas, is to get the message out there. Mud sticks – don’t spread it around.” Mr Watkin said.

Of course, it can also be spread by native animals but not as dramatically as has been done by humans.

Mr Watkin started his career in Manjimup and is now based in Albany, covering the south west of the State, including areas such as Walpole Wilderness, Betty’s Beach, Sandpatch and Pallinup Reserve.

Mr Watkin is using his unique skills, honed over 20 years, to identify the protectable disease-free areas, initiated by Project Dieback and Dr Joanna Young to implement a more economical and efficient system of management. It was refined with support of another dieback interpretation service, Glevan Consulting and first tried on some City of Albany reserves.

Dr Young said that by placing a more positive slant on this environmental disaster, the priority was to determine whether areas were protectable.

“This means we need to look for the green and find the gems that are not infested so that they can be protected and infestations contained through effective management and community awareness,” she said.

Project Dieback was established by South Coast NRM Inc, whose role is to engage the community and provide technical support to landholders to deal with dieback.

The organisation has developed positive partnerships with major stakeholders and government agencies with management strategies that cover all native vegetation, regardless of land tenure.

The disease was previously referred to as Jarrah dieback, but what is not known generally is that Phythophthora cinnamomi has probably been around Albany since first white settlement, introduced from south east Asia.

This makes interpretation even more of a challenge, because dieback has been festering in many different areas and vegetation types for a long time.

It spread dramatically after World War II due to the unwitting transfer of dieback through movement of soil for road building, a burgeoning timber industry and human activity in towns, farms and settlements.

Our intrepid early settlers were blissfully unaware of the damage being perpetrated as land was developed and over the years it wasn’t just jarrah trees but large areas of banksias and wildflowers that were falling prey to this pathogenic predator.

P. cinnamomi is most active when conditions are warm and wet and it has produced a complex mosaic of infested and uninfested areas in the south west with poorly drained areas and wetter sites impacted most severely.

While there is no argument about the catastrophic impacts of dieback, the need to develop long-term management strategies hinges on extensive mapping and detailed knowledge of where the disease is and how to contain its deadly progress.