A Government official once said to a friend of mine, who is a professional conservation communicator, “It’s so sad that we lost the Christmas Island pipistrelle* [a type of bat]. If only we had acted earlier.” My friend couldn’t help replying with a touch of sarcasm, “You lost it! Where was it last time you saw it? Maybe I can come and help you look.”  Then with a more sombre tone he then said, “Seriously mate, don’t you mean you and the Government allowed it to become extinct?” This simple reframe took the conversation on a very different trajectory to one of personal and governmental accountability, versus simple regret about an awful situation.

Over Australia’s Black Summer, I drove more than 2000 kilometres, slept in the bush and in my car, ate at pubs and out of cans, and even flew in military transport on a koala rescue mission. My objectives were simple: document and highlight the impact of bushfires on our wildlife, and the work being done to try and rescue and care for them.

he thought of any animal trapped underwater, slowly drowning while it frantically searches for an escape is horrific. Knowing that we allow this to happen to one of our most iconic and unique species, the platypus, for the sake of a few yabbies, is simply disgraceful. And yet this is what happens every year with people using enclosed yabby traps (i.e. opera house nets, drum nets etc.) and other type of enclosed nets in our waterways. These nets trap indiscriminately and frequently drown platypuses (as well as other air breathing animals such as rakali and turtles) and the current regulations clearly don’t prevent this. This was graphically and horribly illustrated earlier this year by the death of five platypuses in just two opera house nets in west Gippsland in May (ABC on-line). Images below. Also, platypuses are now listed as “near threatened” under the IUCN, so anything that puts them at risk should be banned.