$12 million waterless barrier pushed to stop Pilbara invasion

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A 12-million-dollar plan to upgrade cattle station water infrastructure is being pushed as a chance to prevent Australia’s cane toad invasion entering the Pilbara. Since being introduced to Queensland in 1935, a swarm of the poisonous pest has migrated more than 2,000 kilometres westward.

Transcript

00:00So cane toads were introduced in 1935 by the Queensland sugar industry. They've spread

00:06to occupy more than 1.6 million square kilometres of the country, so that's a huge swathe of

00:12country. And they're highly toxic, so lots of Australia's native predators think they

00:17can eat them and they can't, and so they die in huge numbers when cane toads first arrive.

00:22So we've seen massive declines in many Australian predators, including our native marsupials,

00:30goannas, snakes, lots of species decline very dramatically when cane toads first arrive.

00:36And so how far into WA have they made it so far?

00:41So they arrived in WA in 2009, the invasion front crossed the border. They've now spread

00:47to occupy the entirety of the Kimberley. This vast iconic region of Western Australia

00:53is now completely colonised by cane toads.

00:56But they haven't made it to the Pilbara, how are you hoping to stop them?

01:02Just south of Broome, the Great Sandy Desert hits the coast and there's this narrow strip

01:06of country that's going to be suitable habitat for cane toads. In that strip there's not

01:13very much natural water. Most of the water there is agricultural water, so it's already

01:19managed by people. So the idea is that we can upgrade that agricultural water infrastructure

01:24to make it such that it's not available to toads. What that means is that in the dry

01:29season when it's really, really hot and dry and toads really need water, they won't be

01:33able to find any. And so essentially we can create a break in that landscape, in that

01:37narrow corridor, and with that break we can stop the toads. The science says that the

01:42toad invasion will stop if we do this.

01:44And so break this down for us, where would the toads be able to get access to water and

01:50how are you physically going to stop them getting to that water?

01:55So cane toads are a frog from the South American rainforest, so they're not actually adapted

02:02to deal with desert conditions. In the dry season in northern Australia they need to

02:06go and find water to rehydrate every couple of days. If they don't they will die very

02:13quickly. They also can't climb, so we can upgrade pastoral infrastructure, tanks and

02:20troughs for watering cattle. We simply make that infrastructure leak-proof so that there's

02:26not water dripping out onto the ground and the toads will not be able to access it even

02:30though the cattle still will be able to.

02:33And so is there any other spots where there's water apart from tanks and troughs?

02:39Yeah, so in the region we're looking at there's a few small horticultural holdings and these

02:47small areas can be fenced off to exclude toads from them. So between a combination of a small

02:52amount of fencing and then upgrading the pastoral infrastructure, we can pretty much lock toads

02:59out of most of the water in that part of the world.

03:01And how much will this cost and does it look like you'll be able to get access to funding

03:05for this?

03:07Yeah, so the rough budget at this point is around about $12 million to upgrade all of

03:12this infrastructure and run the project for about seven years. We are in discussions with

03:18state and federal government and with industry around funding this idea. As a conservation

03:25initiative, you know, this is a nationally significant conservation initiative. It potentially

03:29keeps toads out of the Pilbara, which is, you know, an area full of, you know, full

03:35of plants and plant and animal species that are found nowhere else on the planet. And

03:39we can prevent a massive impact on the Pilbara by preventing toads. So we think there's a

03:43good case here and $12 million is in fact a very cheap proposition for what's on offer.

03:48And so give us a few examples of animals that would be particularly vulnerable in the Pilbara

03:53if the cane toads made it in there.

03:56Yeah, so there's a range of species in the Pilbara. There's lots of small marsupial carnivores,

04:02things like colutas, which most people will never have heard of before. But many more

04:07people will have heard of things like quolls. So there's quolls in the Pilbara as well.

04:11So these are all native marsupial predators that will be expected to be fooled into eating

04:18toads and we can expect them all to decline. There's also a range of goanna species. Again,

04:24many people won't have heard of many of these species, but many of these species are endemic.

04:29They're not found anywhere else except in the Pilbara. And we can expect that a lot

04:33of those goanna species will also be badly impacted.

04:35And so how confident are you you're going to be able to get this funding and do this?

04:41So the science, there's been about 15 years of scientific work done on this by multiple

04:47independent research groups. And all of that work really does conclude that this is possible

04:53from a scientific perspective. If we exclude toads from these water points, the toad invasion

04:59should stop. In terms of on-ground feasibility, we're seeing this amazing partnership developing

05:05between pastoralists and the indigenous landowners, the Garajari and Yungamarta people. And these

05:12groups on the ground are really keen to make this happen. So really the last piece is funding.

05:18And as I said, we've been having some good conversations at this point, but obviously

05:23we'll need to lock that in pretty soon.

05:25And so is that with the government and the private sector?

05:28Yeah, that's right.

05:30And so are there any promising indications from any big mining magnates?

05:37Not any mining magnates necessarily, but we're certainly in conversation with some mining

05:43companies. If cane toads get to the Pilbara, this actually ends up costing mining companies

05:49money because not only will they have to manage toads, but they'll have a whole bunch more

05:53threatened species on the list, on their mining leases that they will have to be very careful

06:01not to impact in the mining activities. So all of that translates into a direct cost

06:05to mining companies. So we think there's actually, it's not just a public good case here and

06:10a social good, there's also a business case here for mining companies.

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