Eaglehawk Waterhole update – Part 3: Fence removal and the coming months

Eaglehawk Waterhole update – Part 3: Fence removal and the coming months

We’ve recapped our reveg works, weed control, insect collection, and other activities, now we move on to fence removal and look ahead to the coming months.

As Eaglehawk was previously a working farm there are over 15 kilometres of internal fencing within the property, which will be removed gradually over the coming years until eventually the reserve will be one undivided piece of land. Over a period of many months, Fred Aslin and his crew have been working hard on fence removal, focussing on the older fences so far, with many, many kilometres of wire and hundreds of droppers already removed. Old fence posts will remain in place, as they often provide habitat for small critters, while the used wire has been wound up with a handy gadget created by the crew and stored ready for re-use – some of the wire has already been re-cycled for protecting threatened orchids in translocations which took place during winter at Binnum, Piccaninnie Ponds, Padthaway, and Desert Camp.

A mountain of wire ready for re-use

As you can see from the updates over the last three weeks, there has been a lot going on at Eaglehawk, and the activity will continue over the next few months with rabbit control and seed collecting planned for summer. Meanwhile, in our nursery, work is already underway on propagating species for a larger scale revegetation planting next winter. About 7500 seedlings will be planted across an area of 20 hectares as part of the federal government’s 20 Million Trees program – more on that closer to the time!

We would like to acknowledge and extend a huge thank you to all the groups and individuals who have been involved in the all the activity at Eaglehawk over the last few months. We are all taking part in the exciting process of turning back the clock and returning the farm back to a more natural state.

This is the final installment in our Eaglehawk Waterhole update series – we hope you’ve enjoyed them!

Rose Thompson