Australia 2022 acroporacoral

Coral recovery in the Great Barrier Reef reaches 36 year high

Australia 2022 EnvironmentalHumanRight

Australia hesitates to pass global  environmental legislation

Australia 2022 Copper

Abandoned copper mine is leaching into surrounding waters

Australia 2022 Methane

Methane emissions must be reduced

Australia 2022 Bimblebox

First Nations Peoples urge against coal mine proposed to destroy the Bimblebox Nature Refuge

AUS-2021 The Reef 2050

The Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan

AUS-2020 Another Australian Wildfire

Another Australian wildfire ignites

AUS-2020 Great Barrier Reef Suffers

Great Barrier Reef suffers third mass bleaching event in five years

Australia 2020 kelpforest

Tasmania kelp forests decimated by climate change

Australia 2020 Lithium

Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of lithium

AUS-2019 This Is What Climate Change Looks Like

"This is what climate change looks like"

AUS-2019 30 of Koalas Killed

30% of koalas killed in NSW mid-north coast fires

Australia 2019 Water

"Unsafe drinking water quality in remote Western Australian Aboriginal communities"

Australia 2019 WorldHerritage

Gunditjmara aquaculture site Budj Bim added to UNESCO World Heritage list

AUS-2018

The Great Barrier Reef is nothing like it used to be

Australia 2016 CoralBleaching

Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching more widespread than first thought

AUS-2015 Looking to Indigenous Cultural Practices

Looking to indigenous cultural practices for future land management

AUS-2014

Australia unveils its plan to protect Great Barrier Reef

AUS-2013

Maria Island study demonstrates the importance of marine reserves

AUS-2012b

"Fellow earthians . . . save us from ourselves"

AUS-2008 10.00.02 AM

Eating kangaroos to fight global warming?

AUS-2007 A Sacred Duty

"A sacred duty to protect the land"

AUS-2004

Protection of the Great Barrier Reef is increased

AUS-2003

Indigenous elders succeed in blocking nuclear waste dump

AUS-2003b

"Irati Wanti—the poison, leave it!"

AUS-1997 The First Mass Coral Bleaching

The first mass coral bleaching event

AUS-1990

Discovery of critically endangered tree kangaroo species

AUS-1985

The Salinization of the Murray-Darling Basin

AUS-1983

Franklin Dam cancelled following intense activism

AUS-1972b

Robert Brown leads movement to prevent construction of Franklin Dam in Tasmania

AUS-1980

Ranger Uranium Mine opens in the northern territory

AUS-1975

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act

AUS-1972

Flooding of Lake Pedder sparks environmental movement 

AUS-2012

United Tasmania Group, the first organized "Green Party"

AUS-1971

John Sinclair and Fraser Island

AUS-1969

Efforts to save the Great Barrier Reef

AUS-1969b

Questionable economics of irrigation

AUS-1965

Great Barrier Reef pollution

AUS-1956

Extinction of the Crescent Nail-tail wallaby due to predation by red fox

AUS-1955

Snowy Mountain Hydroelectric and Irrigation scheme

AUS-1930

Thylacine extinct in the wild

AUS-1925

Cactoblastis cactorum moth combats Prickly pear infestation

AUS-1903

Koala fur trade

AUS-1902

Agricultural practices contribute to massive dust storms

AUS-1902b

Copper mining causes toxic repercussions

AUS-1895

Darling and Murray Rivers run dry in severe "Federation Drought"

AUS-1887

From the start, large-scale irrigation works vulnerable to drought, salinity

AUS-1879

Royal National Park established 

AUS-1870

Red fox introduced to Australia for sport hunting

First photographs of the Great Barrier Reef show former vitality

AUS-1860

Ironically, Game Preservation Act does not protect native species

AUS-1859

The introduction and impact of wild rabbits

AUS-1851b

"Black Thursday:" European settlers face first catastrophic bushfires

AUS-1851

Australian Gold Rush begins

AUS-1848

"Untrodden by the foot of the white man"

AUS-1847 Fire, Grass, Kangaroos

The interdependence of fire, grass, kangaroos, and humans

AUS-1842 Discovery of Copper

Discovery of copper opens the door to land exploitation

AUS-1840

"Wholesale slaughter" of whales and elephant seals 

AUS-1803

Hundreds of thousands of seals killed around the islands of Tasmania

AUS-1780

"No other land had been treated so gently"

AUS-1768 Louis-Antoine de Bougainville

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville discovers the largest reef in the world

AUS-0BCE4000

Dingo introduced in Australia 

Eels 6600 EelTrap

The Gunditjmara people built an elaborate series of channels and pools at Budj Bim to harvest eels from Lake Condah

AUS-2018 We ve Watched Tasmania Become an Island

Cultural memory of Tasmania separated from mainland at end of the Ice Age

AUS-0BCE20000

Aboriginal Australians co-existed with megafauna for at least 17,000 years

Australia 34000 BudjBim

The lava flow at Budj Bim used thousands of years later by the Gunditjmara

Australia 37000 Country

"Country is a nourishing terrain. Country is a place that gives and receives life"

AUS-0BCE50000

Aboriginal creation myth, Sky Father Baiame forbids humans from eating the animals

Oceania, Australia

Great Barrier Reef 

Covering an area of 348,000 square kilometers, the Great Barrier Reef contains the world’s largest collection of coral reefs, with 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusk. The greatest threat to the reef is climate change, which causes massive bleaching events. Coastal development, land-based run-off pollution, and unsustainable fishing practices also exacerbate these issues befalling the already stressed corals.

The Outback (Deserts & Shrublands)

Australia’s desert and dry shrublands—commonly called the Outback—are found in the center of the continent stretching to the west coast. These lands contain the largest intact tropical savanna on Earth, covering nearly 2 million km2. The most pervasive threats to these shrublands are related to invasive species, changes in fire management regimes, and declining rainfall.

Wetlands and swamps

Australia is home to a variety of wetlands, from tidal mangroves and billabongs, to salt lakes and freshwater springs. Australian wetlands are critical to the survival of birds that migrate across the globe each year, and are also permanent habitats to numerous unique plants and animals. Many wetlands in Western Australia are threatened by alteration of natural water systems, invasive species, mining activities, and pollution.

Eastern Temperate forests 

Temperate forests are found along the eastern coast of Australia from Queensland to New South Wales. These forests remain vulnerable to clearing for ranching and agriculture. The Cumberland plain woodland system near Sydney has been cleared for grazing and cropping to the just 10% of its original area.

Key Habitats 

Climate Change 

Climate change compounds existing threats to Australia’s ecosystems. An increase in the number and size of fires throughout Australia has been linked to a warming climate, which in the last year killed or displaced nearly three billion animals. Massive coral bleaching events caused by warming seas have destroyed more than half of the Great Barrier Reef’s corals since 1995.

Agriculture Clearing and Overgrazing

Extensive land clearing and grazing continues to degrade land and decrease biodiversity; in temperate ecosystems, less than 2% of the original grasslands remain. Overgrazing promotes erosion and desertification, and contributes to the spread of invasive plants. Wet tropics have also become fragmented due to land alteration for cane sugar farming and other industries. Methane emissions and ammonia runoff from livestock farming has caused algal bloom and fish die-offs in Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. 

Invasive Species 

Invasive animals and plants have a major impact on Australian ecologies. Historically, feral cats, foxes and rabbits have been a cause of local extinctions and significant reductions in range for native species through a combination of habitat modification and predation. Other well-known examples include cane toads, willows and—more recently—black striped mussels and red fire ants.

Water Pollution 

Common contaminants found in coastal rivers and estuaries around Australia include metals, pesticides, fertilizers, erosion sediments, and plastic debris. The current state of coastal river and estuary pollution has been deteriorating since 2011, particularly due to agriculture; it is estimated that each year almost 19,000 tonnes of phosphorus and 141,000 tonnes of nitrogen are discharged to rivers flowing to the coast.

Most Pressing Issues

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