Blackwood Group spreads fauna message

Blackwood Basin Group members travelled to Darkan to mark Threatened Species Day and raise awareness about the phascogale, which is native to the Wheatbelt and South West.

West Arthur Landcare officer Karrie Williamson said the group was keen to extend its work in Warren-Blackwood and would like to hear of any phascogale sightings in the area.

“If people have sighted them on their properties and would like to install nest boxes we would be more than happy for them to contact us,” she said.

“The more people we know that want to install them, the more chances we’ve got of creating a project and looking for funding.”

The Darkan workshops gave residents a better understanding of the small marsupial, which was vulnerable because of land clearing and preyed on by foxes and feral cats.

A town hall meeting on August 31 discussed the status of the rarer endangered red-tailed phascogale, found in the wheatbelt, and its threatened southern cousin the brushtail.

Landcare’s phascogale mascot visited Darkan Primary School the next day when children also built nesting tubes to be installed in a reserve, then joined a night stalk to spot native fauna.

While the Darkan workshops received government funding, there was as yet no funding available for similar workshops focusing on the brush-tail in the southern forests.

“It’s something we’d really like to do and we might possibly be able to if people want to install nesting boxes in their own time using their own funds,” Ms Williamson said.

“But we can’t do any funded work at the moment.”