Recovery plan for the brush-tailed rock-wallaby - Department of ...

Approved NSW Recovery Plan Brush-tailed rock-wallaby
Actions involving on-ground management programs and the long-term monitoring of sites will
also have economic consequences for land managers. However, these programs will involve
activities which are normally required to effectively manage land, such as weed control and feral
animal removal. Costs for land managers can be minimised by seeking funding from external
sources and by adopting a cooperative approach to management involving DECC, Catchment
Management Authorities, other relevant landholders and the community.
In addition to areas managed by DECC, additional areas will need to be managed to conserve the
species outside national parks and reserves.
There are at least three options for conserving the BTRW on lands that are not managed by
DECC:
1. DECC can negotiate with relevant stakeholders and implement joint conservation
management programs.
2. DECC can acquire land in high priority areas that is otherwise poorly represented in national
parks and reserves.
3. DECC can encourage landowners or leaseholders to enter into voluntary agreements to
conserve the BTRW.
These options should be evaluated in terms of their effectiveness in assisting the recovery of the
BTRW, and their economic impact on land managers. Sympathetic management of lands
adjacent to BTRW colonies may benefit landowners and land managers by leading to a reduction
in goat and fox numbers. Such a reduction may outweigh potential negative impacts such as
diminished economic returns from the conserved area. Landowners entering into conservation
agreements may also benefit from tax relief.
It is considered that there will be other positive economic consequences from implementing the
plan, including:
• for government, overall cost savings by investing in community training and resourcing to
minimise public labour expenditure in feral animal control, and more efficient resource use,
as management of the species will be more coordinated and strategic
• for the rural community, reduced predation on, and spread of disease to, livestock, and an
improvement in long-term agricultural productivity through better land management
practices for wildlife
• for landholders negotiating conservation agreements, positive financial outcomes such as tax
relief.
9.4 Scientific and taxonomic value
Macropods comprise almost 40% of Australian marsupials and are one of the continent’s most
successful faunal groups. Rock-wallabies form the largest group of macropods, representing
31% of extant species, and are an internationally recognised model for the study of chromosome
evolution and speciation (Eldridge pers. comm.).
The great variation within the rock-wallaby genus Petrogale has been attributed to the highly
discontinuous distribution of species populations (Poole 1978, Maynes 1989). In all, 28 different
rock-wallabies were described between 1827 and 1992, of which 25 were assigned to the genus
Petrogale, and three to the genus Peradorcas (Briscoe et al 1982). There are currently 16 species
of rock-wallaby in the Petrogale genus, with the genus Peradorcas now recategorised as
Petrogale (Calaby and Richardson 1988).
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