Land for Wildlife Top End was a voluntary program that assisted and encouraged landholders to provide habitat for wildlife on their properties. In the Top End, Greening Australia ran the program for nine years (2010-2019) through funding from the Parks & Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory.
The concept of Land for Wildlife Top End is becoming increasingly important as bushland around Darwin is lost to development. The remaining tracts of key native habitat are owned by private landholders. Over the nine years, we supported a diverse and dedicated group of over 250 peri-urban landholders with properties from Darwin to Katherine to manage an equivalent of 11,000 hectares of private land for conservation.
In 2017, the Land for Wildlife Top End received both a ‘Australian Government Partnerships for Landcare’ award in the NT Landcare Awards, as well as a ‘People’s Choice Award’ in the Territory NRM Awards for its collaboration with partners and landholders.
As part of the program, workshops and field days were held on members’ properties two to three times a year. These included native plant propagation workshops, fire management, weed management and identification days, and ‘Trees for Wildlife’ (an arboriculture workshop about encouraging wildlife by using dead trees and logs). Greening Australia also hosted field days about local wildlife or landscapes of interest. The scheme networked with and promoted other organisations with similar values, such as Wildcare and Landcare groups.
Land for Wildlife properties in Darwin included mainly residential rural blocks but also included conservation reserves, defense land and public land, encompassing a wide variety of environments such as woodland communities, riverine landscapes, lagoons, sand sheet, coastal vine thicket and monsoon rainforest.
We wish the landholders success in continuing their conservation efforts.
