Welcome to Good Earth News, issue three: a win at Dryandra Woodland for the critically endangered numbat, a refreshed outlook at drought-stricken Darling-Baaka River, and a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural precinct “Ngurra” in Canberra.

Good Earth News

New national park at Dryandra Woodland, a win for critically endangered numbat.

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.

With the woodland near Narroginn now being classified as a national park, about 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.

This also raises questions over why other areas aren’t being afforded the same protection.

Source: ABC News

Good Earth News

Bourke transformed by floodwaters heading for South Australia.

Less than two years ago, the mighty Darling-Baaka River in far-west New South Wales was so drought-stricken that it was all but dry, with boats stuck on the bottom of its empty riverbed.

But now it has been transformed by a major flood that has just peaked at Bourke at almost 12.3 metres and is expected to travel all the way to South Australia.

An incredible 74,000 megalitres of water is flowing through Bourke every day.

The flood has been travelling down from Queensland and northwest New South Wales since November when torrential, persistent rain caused a declared flood disaster that particularly devastated the Narrabri and Wide Bay regions.

But for Bourke the flood brings immense relief, helping the environment recover from the worst drought in living memory.

Source: ABC News

Good Earth News

Government announces new Cultural Precinct to be built in Canberra.

The Morrison Government have announced the building of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural precinct on Ngunnawal country, which is to be named Ngurra.

Ngurra will sit on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in the Parliamentary Triangle.

Ngurra – meaning ‘home’, ‘country’ or ‘place of belonging’, will include learning facilities and a national resting place to care for Indigenous ancestral remains as well as providing the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) a new home.

Source: National Indigenous Times