Landscape Context
Wildlife corridors play a vital role in biodiversity conservation by connecting remnant populations of flora and fauna. They act as conduits through which animals and plants can move freely, providing opportunities for re-colonisation of habitat after catastrophes such as wildfire or drought. The Paruna sanctuary project enhances and protects both the Walyunga and Avon Valley National Parks by providing this vital linkage, and by significantly reducing the border-to-area ratios of the National Parks.
AWC consolidated agricultural properties over a number of years to provide an unbroken corridor that extends 14 km to join the two National Parks. This linkage was of tremendous conservation benefit, consolidating a larger area managed for nature conservation, which was then large enough to conduct a major reintroduction project focusing on the return of native mammals.
AWC has erected a vermin-proof fence that runs along one flank of the property, separating the high quality bushland within Paruna sanctuary from adjacent farmland. The fence inhibits invasion by foxes and cats, and separates neighbouring pets from the fox control program, but importantly, does not impede the movement of wildlife between the two National Parks.
With the active participation of the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) almost 20,000 ha is now being actively managed for feral predator control and the subsequent reintroduction of a range of native mammals, including the threatened Black-flanked Rock-wallaby, which was collected in the region by John Gilbert in 1842, but had not seen since the 1940s.