Australian Wildlife Conservancy

Book excerpt: Australia is home to some of the most unique wildlife in the world, from the improbable Bilby with its enormous ears, to the Purple-crowned Fairywren with its loyal partnerships, to the highly social Great Desert Skink. But this wildlife is in crisis. In just over two centuries, over 100 plant and animal species have become extinct and every year Australia's threatened species list continues to grow. Australian Wildlife Conservancy's (AWC) mission is to halt these extinctions and turn back this decline; to effectively conserve all Australian animal species and the habitats in which they live. The late Martin Copley AM, founder of AWC, purchased the organisation's first sanctuary in 1991. Thirty years on, AWC is a global leader in conservation, working alone or in partnership across a vast 6.5 million hectares of the continent: restoring biodiversity from the Kimberley to Cape York and from the Coral Coast to the Eyre Peninsula and Sunshine Coast.This book provides a window into AWC's history and a look to the future. This insightful and hopeful collection of stories gives evidence of the passion and immense effort invested by all those involved with the organisation. Featuring writing from the AWC family, past and present, including Tim Winton, Tim Flannery, the late Thomas Lovejoy and Sarah Legge, this book traverses the challenges and triumphs that mark the first thirty years of AWC.