Bush Heritage Australia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Bush Heritage Australia

Logo
Founded	1991 (1991)
Focus	Conservation
Location	Melbourne, Australia
Area served	Australia
Method	Acquisition
Members	54,000 supporters
Key people	Bob Brown
Revenue	A $34,000,000 (2023/August 2023)
Employees	199 (full-time equivalent)
Volunteers	785
Formerly called	Australian Bush Heritage Fund

Bush Heritage Australia is a special group that works to protect Australia's amazing nature. It is a non-profit organization, which means it doesn't work to make money. Its main office is in Melbourne, Australia, but it helps nature all across the country. It used to be called the Australian Bush Heritage Fund.

Bush Heritage Australia has a big goal: "Healthy Country, Protected Forever." They work in three main ways to achieve this:

• They buy land that is very important for nature. They then manage these areas as wildlife reserves forever.
• They work with Aboriginal groups, who are the traditional owners of much land. Bush Heritage helps them create and follow "Healthy Country Plans" to look after their land.
• They also team up with farmers. Their goal is to help protect nature on a huge amount of farmland by the year 2030.

All this work helps to save endangered species (animals and plants in danger of disappearing) and keep Australia's biodiversity strong. Biodiversity means all the different kinds of life on Earth. In 2023, they were helping to protect over 11 million hectares of land. This land was home to more than 7,700 Australian species, including over 200 species that are threatened.

History of Bush Heritage Australia

Bush Heritage Australia was started in 1990 by a person named Bob Brown. He bought two areas of forest in Tasmania. These forests were next to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site. He wanted to save them from being cut down for woodchips.

Bob Brown used money he won from an award called the Goldman Environmental Prize to buy the land. He borrowed the rest of the money and then set up the Australian Bush Heritage Fund.

The organization started small in Tasmania. Then, it grew and began working on the Australian mainland. Many people who regularly donate money have helped it grow over the years.

Doug Humann was the CEO (leader) of Bush Heritage Australia from 1997 to 2011. He helped the group become well-known across Australia. Gerard O'Neill took over from 2011 to 2018. Since January 2019, Heather Campbell has been the CEO.

In 1997, Bush Heritage started looking after Erith Island. This island was used for cattle. In 2002, they gave the island back to the Tasmanian Government. It then became part of the Kent Group National Park.

A big step happened in 2011. Bush Heritage made an agreement with the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation. This was the first long-term agreement in Australia between traditional landowners and a non-government nature group. Many similar agreements have happened since then. This partnership helps manage an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in the Mitchell River National Park in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Bush Heritage now has a large program to work with Aboriginal partners.

What Bush Heritage Australia Does

Bush Heritage Australia works hard to protect Australia's amazing variety of life for a long time. They do this by buying and managing land, water, and wildlife that are very important for nature.

They focus their efforts on special "priority landscapes" across Australia. These areas are chosen carefully. They look at things like how many threatened species live there. They also consider how healthy the land is and how climate change might affect it.

Looking after the land they own involves several important tasks:

• They help damaged land become healthy again.
• They control animals that are not native and cause harm, like introduced herbivores (plant-eaters) and predators.
• They use fire as a management tool in a safe and planned way.
• They talk and work with people who own land nearby and with traditional owners.
• They also work with government groups.
• They create "habitat corridors." These are safe pathways that help animals move between different areas of nature.

Bush Heritage Australia also has a science team. They study how people feel about protecting nature. They also research how to best protect different animal and plant species.

How Bush Heritage Australia Works

Bush Heritage is managed by a group of expert directors. These people are skilled in looking after land and protecting nature. The organization also has about 200 paid staff members. Many volunteers help out too.

In 2023, Bush Heritage had over 50,000 supporters. Hundreds of skilled volunteers gave more than 43,000 hours of their time. These volunteers often get to visit and work on the nature reserves. You can find more details about how they get and spend money in their Impact Report on their website.

Special Places They Protect: Reserves

As of October 2023, Bush Heritage Australia had 42 of its own nature reserves. They also worked with 25 Aboriginal partnerships. Together, they were protecting a huge area of 11.3 million hectares (which is 113,000 square kilometers). These reserves are like safe homes for Australia's unique plants and animals.

See also

• Conservation in Australia
• List of threatened flora of Australia
• Threatened fauna of Australia