On the ground and on the air: Tackling cats and foxes

From the airwaves to the outback, National Feral Cat & Fox Management Coordination program is connecting communities and driving coordinated action.

The program team continues to be active right around Australia. Coordinator, Gillian Basnett, reached over 25,000 listeners across WA and Queensland through two interviews on ABC Radio. The first covered the growing issue of urban foxes while the second explored the impacts of natural disasters, like recent flooding, on feral cat populations in central and southwest Queensland.

On the ground, the team continues to support practical management activities and local engagement. Gill travelled to Victoria’s Grampians to support the community-led Project Platypus initiative to deliver landscape-scale habitat restoration and invasive species control for threatened species like the southern brown bandicoot, swift parrot and brush-tailed rock-wallaby.

Gill also accepted an invitation from Queensland’s Southern Gulf NRM to lead a session on feral cat impacts and management at the Gulf Catchment Pest Taskforce in Cloncurry. Her work supported the Feathered Futures project which is focused on protecting bird species in the region, including the critically endangered night parrot, Carpentarian grasswren and Gouldian finch.

Back in Victoria, Gill was joined by Project Officer, Dr Thomas Nelson and Heidi Kleinert, National Feral Rabbit Management Coordinator, at the Gippsland Weed and Pest Fest which attracted around 400 visitors.