In a boost for wildlife conservation in Australia, photographs of the elusive tammar wallaby have been taken by infra-red cameras on Monjebup Reserve, owned by conservation group, Bush Heritage Australia.

The 946ha Monjebup Reserve (which lies between the Fitzgerald River National Park and the Stirling Range National Park, just off the South Coast Highway) is a key site for a wallaby-monitoring project within the Gondwana Link partnership.

Gondwana is led by Bush Heritage, The Nature Conservancy, The Wilderness Society and Greening Australia (WA).

The marsupial is listed under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2000). Only two small populations remain, one in Western Australia and one on Kangaroo Island.

“Sightings of the tammar wallaby are extremely rare and we are very excited to have found evidence of the wallaby at Monjebup Reserve,” Bush Heritage ecologist Angela Sanders said.

“The tammar used to be very common but predation by foxes and loss of habitat from land clearing has reduced numbers to the point of extinction in South Australia.

“We believe that feral predator control and habitat restoration work at Monjebup Reserve may be making a difference to their ability to move through the landscape.”

Extinct on mainland South Australia (EPBC Act 1999), the tammar wallaby was the first “kangaroo” seen by Europeans in 1628, by survivors of the Dutch ship Batavia stranded near the Wallabi Islands off Geraldton.

Bush Heritage Australia CEO Doug Humann said the discovery underlined the importance of protecting and managing Australia’s unique landscapes.

“With assistance from the public and the government, Bush Heritage is able to protect important properties around Australia and the precious creatures that inhabit them, such as the tammar wallaby,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for the infra-red cameras placed on the reserve by field staff, funded by public support, we couldn’t confirm this sighting with absolute certainty.”

The herbivorous mammal is nocturnal and inhabits coastal scrub, heath, leafy forest and thickets in mallee and woodland.