Earthed: Australian climate + sustainability news
Jul 27, 2026 · 40 min · 13 segments
A long-running groundwater conservation project has clocked up some big wins. And conservation organisation Bush Heritage has acquired an extraordinary new property. Plus, the government is…
Murray GriffinHost
Franziska CurranHost
Well, I wanted to give a shout out to Bush Heritage Australia, which is a conservation organization that specializes in buying and protecting land.
And Bush Heritage has just bought a property called Wenara in Western Australia's Midwest.
So this is a 107,000 hectare property, which makes it important in its own right.
But it's also the final piece in creating a 1 million hectare interconnected conservation corridor in Western Australia's Midwest, which is an amazing achievement.
According to Bush Heritage, in a region where most native vegetation has been cleared and less than 4% remains protected, it's a precious remnant of what once was.
Wenara covers the traditional lands of the Widi mob and Badimai people of the Yamatji Nation, and the property also has enormous cultural significance.
In consultation with traditional custodians, Bush Heritage acquired the property from Richard Hamilton, whose family had purchased it in 1983, running sheep and goats on the station.
He found that the dry years had taken a toll on the property and grazing pressure was increasing.
So in an extraordinary move, Richard decided to reshape Wenara's future and destock the station.
So here's a Bush Heritage clip about the property made just before the acquisition.
Yes, so Wanara lies in the Southwest Biodiversity Hotspot.
It is one of the world's 35 biodiversity hotspots.
And here at Wanara, we are so lucky to have so much intact landscape that now no longer exists in many parts of the biodiversity hotspot.
It contains everything sort of from like... sweeping salt lake complexes to magnificent woodlands to rugged granite outcrops and expanses of the wildflowers that the Midwest is famous for and those wildflowers are overwhelmingly annuals and the most famous of which are the paper daisies and it is a beautiful sight in spring when you get you know It's waves of whites and yellows and purples and pinks.
It's magnificent.
The Salt Lake Complex, the Mungo Salt Lake Complex, is an internationally recognized bird conservation area.
And it's one of these ephemeral complexes that fills up when there's a large rainfall event.
They come from hundreds if not thousands of kilometers around.
Examples are things like banded stilts.
And there's even been evidence of black swans coming.
Well, I wanted to give a shout out to Bush Heritage Australia, which is a conservation organization that specializes in buying and protecting land.
And Bush Heritage has just bought a property called Wenara in Western Australia's Midwest.
So this is a 107,000 hectare property, which makes it important in its own right.
But it's also the final piece in creating a 1 million hectare interconnected conservation corridor in Western Australia's Midwest, which is an amazing achievement.
According to Bush Heritage, in a region where most native vegetation has been cleared and less than 4% remains protected, it's a precious remnant of what once was.
Wenara covers the traditional lands of the Widi mob and Badimai people of the Yamatji Nation, and the property also has enormous cultural significance.
In consultation with traditional custodians, Bush Heritage acquired the property from Richard Hamilton, whose family had purchased it in 1983, running sheep and goats on the station.
He found that the dry years had taken a toll on the property and grazing pressure was increasing.
So in an extraordinary move, Richard decided to reshape Wenara's future and destock the station.
So here's a Bush Heritage clip about the property made just before the acquisition.
Yes, so Wanara lies in the Southwest Biodiversity Hotspot.
It is one of the world's 35 biodiversity hotspots.
And here at Wanara, we are so lucky to have so much intact landscape that now no longer exists in many parts of the biodiversity hotspot.
It contains everything sort of from like... sweeping salt lake complexes to magnificent woodlands to rugged granite outcrops and expanses of the wildflowers that the Midwest is famous for and those wildflowers are overwhelmingly annuals and the most famous of which are the paper daisies and it is a beautiful sight in spring when you get you know It's waves of whites and yellows and purples and pinks.
It's magnificent.
The Salt Lake Complex, the Mungo Salt Lake Complex, is an internationally recognized bird conservation area.
And it's one of these ephemeral complexes that fills up when there's a large rainfall event.
They come from hundreds if not thousands of kilometers around.
Examples are things like banded stilts.
And there's even been evidence of black swans coming.
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