• Change text size
• Skip to content

Ministers

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts

• Contact us

Search:

A number of iconic species including the forest red-tailed black cockatoo and the woylie will receive a greater level of protection under federal environment legislation, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said today.

On World Environment Day, Mr Garrett announced nine new Western Australian additions to the national threatened species list, along with the transfer of two Western Australian species to higher categories and the delisting of another.

In addition to the forest red-tailed black cockatoo and the woylie, the new listings include several flowering plants, trees and shrubs endemic to Western Australia, as well as the Jurien Bay skink.

Mr Garrett said the listings will help conserve the species for the future. "By placing these species on the national threatened list, I am ensuring their increased protection, with projects or activities which could significantly impact upon them now needing to be thoroughly assessed and approved before they can proceed,” Mr Garrett said.

"Listing also increases public awareness of their threatened status and encourages communities and natural resource management groups to implement conservation activities and projects to protect them for future generations."

Mr Garrett said the forest red-tailed black cockatoo and the woylie (also known as the brush-tailed bettong or brush-tailed rat kangaroo) were iconic species and that initiating recovery plans along with their listing would hopefully save them from heading closer to extinction.

“The forest red-tailed black cockatoo is an example of the striking birdlife found in Australia. Endemic to Western Australia, the listing of the cockatoo will help increase awareness of its plight – most notably increased competition for nesting hollows from other species and encroachment upon its habitat – and will ensure it is protected by national environmental law.

“The woylie has unfortunately suffered a massive decline in recent years. It is hoped through the development of a recovery plan and other continued efforts to save this marsupial, a reversal in its decline can begin,” he said.

For more information on threatened species visit:
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/index.html

The conservation advice for all listings can be found on the department's web site at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/conservation-advices.html

Western Australian Species

Critically endangered

• Muchea bell (shrub)
• Bodallin poison (shrub)
• Branched hemigenia (shrub)
• Hibbertia priceana (shrub)
• Robust coneflower
• Boscabel conostylis (herb)

Endangered

• Woylie
• Eucalyptus recta (tree)
• Diels' daviesia (shrub)

Vulnerable

• Forest red-tailed black cockatoo
• Jurien Bay skink

Delisted

• Western whipbird (western mallee)

• Ministers home
  • Peter Garrett
  • Mike Kelly

• Peter Garrett

• 2009
  • Transcripts
  • Major speeches
  • Opinion pieces

• • 2008
    • Transcripts
    • Major speeches
    • Videos
  • 2007