The St Helens Reserve is a 32 hectare Parks Victoria Reserve that was once a country racecourse. It is inland from Yambuk on the South West Coast of Victoria.  It is home to a number of native species  - some of which are rare.

In 2012 we were funded to buy remote sensing cameras and survey this reserve for bandicoots, which had not been seen there for over 10 years. The adjoining farmer had seen them but frankly sometimes farmers don't get listened to. We had to prove him right.
On Christmas day 2012 we had our first proof that a small population of the Endangered Southern Brown Bandicoot was still in the reserve. They are the last known in the Basalt to Bay Landcare Network Region (which is Moyne Shire and Warrnambool City - or 4% of the State of Victoria). For how long though?





Southern Brown Bandicoot are a species that can and do survive in places where the introduced predators (foxes and cats) are keep low - so they might continue to exist in the St Helens Reserve by controlling foxes in the reserve itself . But - it is a small place and just keeping it low in foxes does not address what happens to the bandicoots if they try and spread - one look through the fence and wham - fox tucker! So by creating a habitat "jail" we do not secure the species because we force them to stay where they are under threat of wildfire, no unrelated breeding partners, and eventual extinction due to lack of new genetics.

Since early 2013 we have had a set of cameras around the reserve monitoring what the bandicoots and the foxes do. We know they venture out of the reserve and use the farm next door. This is teaching us all sorts of interesting facts about these species as well as showing us what other animals live in the area around the reserve. For example we have been filming a deliberately placed sheep carcass in a paddock next to the reserve. We were looking to see if the foxes were using dead stock to sustain themselves. One fox came in that month - and all it did was lick its lips and wander off never to be seen again.


But in looking at the footage what we realized was that we had recorded a Southern Boobook Owl using the sheep as bait for rodents and insects. This had never been recorded anywhere in the world - an owl that has learnt that a dead animal brings it food. Boobook owl hunting around a carcass at St Helens . What else might we see if those foxes are given the flick?

We have the capacity to help the bandicoots get out of the reserve and find some new homes nearby - in other reserves and on private land - by reducing the fox numbers over several years so those baby bandicoots can find new homes. What we dont have is the finances to fund this fox control around the Crown Land on private land - and nor do we have time to build the kinds of bandicoot corridors that would allow this years' babies to sneak away from the St Helens Reserve without being spotted by foxes.

So Bandicoot Boosters is to fund a fox control program on private land within 25km radius of the St Helens Reserve over two years beginning 2015. Local landholders will have a choice whether to undertake fox control themselves or hire a professional contractor. Either way to be part of the project they will need to submit records of the foxes killed over the two years, and the fox tails will be collected from every animal as evidence of how your funding was used to reduce fox numbers. That way we can really crunch down on where the fox pressure is greatest and learn how to keep them low. By working with local farmers we also know this will help get the message out that foxes are the big threat to those native animals that once gone are very hard to replace. If there was ever a "Little Aussie Battler" the Southern Brown Bandicoot is it.

If we gain more than the $8000 we will use that extra to buy the expertise of the Arthur Rylah Institute - to come and study the genetics of the Southern Brown Bandicoots at St Helens and compare that data with other populations around Victoria. It may show that the St Helens Bandicoots are more precious than we think. It may also show they need fresh animals to boost them back to population health. Right now we don't know and the ARI are $1000 a day.

We reckon the St Helens Bandicoots can get to nearby Broadwater Bushland Reserve if the foxes are kept low. We have also been monitoring that reserve with cameras - and here is a link to the latest film.Broadwater Bushland Reserve Camera Detections August to September 2014 . No bandicoots as yet but there is plenty of other wildlife that would benefit from having the foxes reduced. There may also be gliders, antechinus, native rats ....the fauna list that foxes eat is huge.
Not only will your assistance help these animals but also the water birds that come in and try to breed in the area. Birds such as the Brolga, black swans, native teal and other ducks, bittern, spoonbill - again the list is large and many of them really struggle with foxes always picking off the chicks.
This image was filmed just up the road from the St Helens Reserve this year by the same farmer who got us into this project in 2012.


It is  a bit of a crunch point - we know the bandicoots are there but we dont know for how long. If we dont act them we might well see them extinct in the near future - and considering we know what to do to help them we think we really have an obligation to do what needs to be done. Your help will make this Pozible!

Fox control program over two years beginning 2015 to cover 25km radius of the St Helens Reserve.
Funds of $4000 per annum will be spent on:

Funding fox control                                                                            $3500

The rest ($500) will be spent on:
Coordination of the project by the Basalt to Bay Landcare Network,                                                                         
Collecting data from foxes killed and collating results,
Producing results  so sponsors can see what we have achieved,
Filming the changes using remote cameras and sharing them with sponsors,
Monitoring what the bandicoots and other impacted species do in response to reduced foxes.

It is a logistical exercise working across multiple landholders- but in talking with local farmers it is clear that they dislike foxes as much as we do. We will be encouraging the community to value the Bandicoots and the St Helens Reserve as a special,local place they are ultimately the local custodians of. Your interest and investment in the Pozible Campaign and subsequently by connecting to the Basalt to Bay Landcare Network, will help with this- because when the wider community start seeing the value, they can change the opinion of others.