Birdlife Australia is launching the Lockyer-Toowoomba Birds on Farms project and needs the help of local landholders.

The project is being coordinated by Toowoomba Ornithologist Scot McPhie, who presented to a recent meeting of Cambooya Landcare.

Cambooya as well as Wyreema, Westbrook, Hodgson Vale, Ramsay, Greenmount and surrounding areas are all part of the project’s area. 

Birdlife Australia wants your help

The project is mainly (but not exclusively) focused on woodland birds.

Approximately 195 bird species in Australia rely on woodlands, and just over a quarter of those birds are threatened or in decline.

Australia has lost 30 per cent of its woodlands, and 75 per cent of what remains exists on private landholdings.

The purpose of Birdlife’s Birds on Farms project is to improve populations of threatened woodland birds by supporting private rural landholders to increase the extent, condition, and connectivity of woodland habitat on their properties.

There are currently six Birds on Farms projects operating in Australia and the Lockyer-Toowoomba Birds on Farms project will be the seventh, and the first in Queensland.

The first year of the project will involve quarterly scientific surveys on the properties of interested landholders, and the second will involve habitat management plans and plantings in priority areas.

If you have a minimum of five hectares of woodland on your property and are interested in being involved, email bof-seq@birdlife.org.au.

This article appeared in On Our Selection News, 20 February 2025.