A new national park has been created in the heart of Western Australia's Wheatbelt, providing greater security for the future of some of the state's most endangered animals.
The Dryandra Woodland near Narrogin is the natural home of numbats, woylies and western quolls, and is the largest remnant of the original vegetation before it was cleared for broadacre farming.
Reece Whitby, the state's new Environment Minister, said the project to turn the woodlands into a national park had been decades in the making.
"If you look at a map of the clearing that's occurred in the Wheatbelt, this is the last important preserved large woodland area," he said.
"[It] makes it unique in the Wheatbelt, which makes it so important that this becomes our first national park in the Wheatbelt."
Approximately 15,000 hectares of the wandoo and powderbark eucalypt woodlands will be given greater levels of conservation programs, affording the unique mammals, birds and reptiles that call Dryandra home greater protection from cats and foxes.
There are fewer numbats left in the wild than pandas.
"It's incredibly important that we retain this, that we can enjoy it and learn about the environment as it existed in the Wheatbelt before the area was cleared" Mr Whitby said.
"So the idea that we preserve the environment means we have a habitat which is safe for native species to survive and to thrive."
A long time coming
Dryandra is a popular destination for Perth nature lovers, located only two hours from the metro area.
There are two campsites in the woodlands and a small village with accommodation for visitors wanting to see wildlife at night in the predator-proof inner sanctuary.
Lions village caretaker John Lawson has spent 18 years at Dryandra helping with the preservation of wildlife.
Now, on the verge of steeping down from his role, the news is the best retirement gift he could have wished for.
"I think it's massive. I've been waiting for this as long as I've been here," Mr Lawson said.
"I didn't think was going to happen, to be honest. But here we are, I retire in February, and we've got it.
"Through social media people have found out about [the woodlands], it used to be a bit of a secret, but no longer — with the national park status, it'll be reaching to a lot more people."
What about Tone River?
But for Perup farmer Bill Smart, the announcement has raised the question about why the only other known natural home of the critically endangered numbat, further south at Tone River near Manjimup, is not being afforded the same level of protection.
Mr Smart raised the alarm about a bushfire lit with incendiary bombs dropped from a helicopter by the Parks and Wildlife Service in March last year that triggered an intense blaze in a forest block known to have a population of at least 50 numbats.
He believes all of the numbats perished in the inferno, a claim disputed by department officials.
He wants extra protection for the endangered mammals extended to the southern forest colony around the Tone River district.
"Maybe their habitat will be looked after a little bit more gently than what's happened here over the last 12 months, and that can only be good.
"If [this area at Tone River] was a national park, I'm sure that this type of fire would not have happened.
"I think there would be more eyes on this area, more people would be aware of what's here and how important it is to protect it."
Mr Smart is a keen numbat photographer and has collected some amazing images of young families beginning to rebuild in the forest near his farm.
He said if the district was made into a national park like Dryandra, it could create tourism employment opportunities for the logging workers who are set to lose their livelihoods when the ban on native hardwoods takes effect in 2024.
"We need some industry that takes over from logging ... tourism and nature can be part of that," he said.
"Why can't we have a Dryandra type of situation east of Manjimup, with research facilities and tourist facilities which are good for the area and transitions away from logging, employs people and attracts people to our community?
"And it can only be good for our numbats."
