Threatened Species Bushfire Recovery Program

Overview

During 2019–2020, Queensland experienced an unprecedented and catastrophic bushfire season. Its scale, intensity and duration were unprecedented, causing widespread human, social, economic and environmental impacts.

In southern Queensland, the preceding extensive drought exacerbated the bushfires' impact on native flora and fauna, which were already experiencing limited water availability, habitat cover and food resources.

Targets

In January 2020, the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, in collaboration with specialists from the Queensland Museum, Queensland Herbarium, Queensland universities and other scientific partners, used preliminary fire extent maps to evaluate the likely impacts on the habitats of threatened flora and fauna species.
The program prioritised threatened species with the greatest area of habitat burnt for recovery actions. The assessment included conducting surveys to evaluate their persistence after the fires and reducing threats from invasive weeds and introduced predators.
The initial evaluation identified the following species for recovery efforts in Phase one of the program:
- 27 threatened plant species
- 25 threatened vertebrate fauna species
- a suite of specialised invertebrate species
in Phase two, the priority species were revised in 2021, with two additional plant species and one reptile species included as those being most at risk.

Outcomes

The program has delivered priority threatened species recovery actions through four recovery projects:
1. Gondwana World Heritage Area (Lamington, Mt Barney and Main Range National Parks)
2. Cooloola section of Great Sandy National Park
3. Oakview and Nangur National Parks
4. Bulburin National Park.
Phase one of the recovery program was completed in June 2021. The recovery actions delivered across the four bushfire-affected locations improved priority threatened species’ immediate survival and long-term recovery.
Phase two of the recovery program was completed in October 2022. This work continued delivering important fire and pest management actions to support ecological recovery across the Gondwana World Heritage Area (Main Range, Lamington and Mt Barney National Parks) and the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park. In addition, ecological monitoring regimes for the priority threatened species and ecosystems were established, collecting critical post-fire data to track recovery.