2 days ago
Critically endangered Victorian grassland earless lizard habitat threatened by land sale limbo
On a sheep farm west of Melbourne two years ago, a lizard species thought extinct was discovered to be well and truly alive.
State and federal environment ministers jointly announced the surprise find that Victorian grasslands earless dragons (Tympanocryptis pinguicolla) were still going half a century after their last sighting.
The species survived in a remnant of once-widespread native grasses that were periodically grazed by sheep and left to go to seed in summer.
But after the plaudits, the family that owns the property has faced a stressful conundrum as they try to conserve the species amid drought, dropping wool prices and rising farm costs.
The farm owners — whose identities and location can't be revealed because of the threat posed by wildlife poachers — want to sell the portion of their land suitable for conservation to the Victorian government.
But the state government won't buy them out despite having a program that aims to purchase land containing endangered grasslands as an offset to urban development.
"There's zero incentive for farmers to protect native pastures," a spokesperson for the family said.
"We feel that the financial incentive is for us to do the opposite … the problem is with climate change and the drought it's always changing how we do things.
With the preservation of the lizard in mind, the family has refrained from changing grazing practices used since World War II.
Reptile ecologist Peter Robertson, who is a member of the recovery team for the dragon, said any grazing management changes could be disastrous for the remaining lizards.
"Farming with sheep grazing appears to be what has most likely allowed the dragon to persist on that land," he said.
Mr Robertson was a co-author of a new report from the Biodiversity Council, an independent biodiversity expert group founded by 11 Australian universities, with a list of recommendations to conserve the dragon and the wider grasslands.
He said the number-one priority in the report, titled "Delivering houses and saving dragons", was to secure the wild site.
"It may well be that we never find this species anywhere else," Mr Robertson said.
University of Melbourne wildlife ecologist Brendan Wintle, who is also a Biodiversity Council lead councillor, said the species could be lost again without action.
"We're not even seeing a guarantee of its protection of its last wild population, despite the goodwill of the people who currently own the land.
"The obvious action is for the Victorian government and maybe with some help from the commonwealth government to purchase and secure the only known wild population."
Around 98 per cent of the grasslands have been lost since European colonisation.
The Victorian government in 2010 agreed to purchase 15,000 hectares of private land containing what's left of the grasslands over a decade to create the Western Grassland Reserve.
That commitment was made as part of an agreement — called the Melbourne Strategic Assessment (MSA) — with the federal government for suburban development to go ahead in other sensitive areas.
But the property in which the dragons were found doesn't fall into the acquisition zone that was drawn up by the state some 13 years before the rediscovery.
And despite provisions allowing changes, the MSA has not been updated to include likely lizard habitat in the new reserves.
A federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water spokesperson said land purchases for the reserve were the responsibility of the state government.
"The department is working with the Victorian government on specific protections for the Victorian grassland earless dragon."
The Victorian government would not say why it wouldn't buy the property nor update the MSA.
But a spokesperson said it was working with the private landholder and other stakeholders on ways to protect the dragon rediscovery site, "as well as delivering a successful conservation breeding program for the Victorian grassland earless dragon with the commonwealth government".
Melbourne Zoo successfully hatched dragon babies at the end of 2023 after 16 male and 13 females were removed from the farm.
Dragon-detecting dogs have also been trained on the farm to potentially find other surviving lizards elsewhere in the state.
But the Biodiversity Council's report states this isn't enough, and calls out the speed of government initiatives to help the dragon.
It recommends more funding to survey potential dragon sites and to translocate zoo-bred lizards to establish at least 12 new wild populations.
Professor Wintle said more resources were needed to urgently undertake translocations and remove threats such as cats.
"But at the moment we're not seeing any investment in trials."
The report is also critical of the effectiveness of the MSA and conservation reserve planning.
New proposals for urban development around Bacchus Marsh and Geelong haven't been incorporated into the MSA, but are instead covered by separate federal environment legislation.
The Biodiversity Council also reported several alleged incidents of habitat (protected by federal law) in the proposed Western Grassland Reserve being cleared illegally.
And while 15,000 hectares of land was supposed to be purchased by 2020 for the reserve, so far about 4,000 hectares (or 26 per cent of properties) have been bought by the Victorian government.
Professor Wintle said that should put the state in breach of its agreement, and the Biodiversity Council has called on the federal government to audit the MSA and bring it up to date.
He also said the original environmental value of flagged conservation land was declining because of the lack of urgency to finalise the reserves.
But a Victorian government spokesperson defended the pace of its buy-up.
"We're protecting our native grassland habitats and the species that occupy them by continuing to acquire and rehabilitate land to create the Western Grasslands Reserve," they said.
"This is funded by the MSA levy that is paid by developers and therefore proceeds in line with the rate of development in the area."
A Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water spokesperson added the MSA was a "robust framework" balancing housing and threatened species.
But back at the farm with the dragons, the view is government policies need to change to better balance landscape management.
"There are big issues on farms in peri-urban areas," a family spokesperson said.
"If you want farmers to maintain Australia's landscape, particularly the western plains, there has to be something better."
