Flora Restored; Wildlife Florished!

It took decades for flora to come back to Phillip Island, part of Australia, and today, the fauna has also regained its rights, thanks to relentless conservation efforts to propagate native plants.

“There was not a scrap of vegetation left. All the topsoil washed away, there was very little for the plants to cling on to,” explains Mark Scott, a local guide and citizen scientist. He took part in the replanting efforts of endemic plants, like the island’s hibiscus, that were down to the last one or two on the island. “It is an amazing place, a myriad of colours, reds, oranges.”

Pigs, goats, and rabbits destroyed the ecosystem – and therefore biodiversity – of Phillip Island, also known as the Uluru of the Pacific for its slopes of red rock and steep valleys. The predatory mammals felled plants and trees, destroying the habitat of species endemic to the island like the Cormocephalus coynei centipede and the Mathewsoconcha grayi, a rare snail that was thought to be extinct until one was recently found. The survival of a species such as the latter is crucial to the overall health of the island’s biodiversity. “These snails are like little cogs in the world,” explains Dr. Isabel Hyman. “It is pretty difficult for one [species] to survive independently of the others. And the more you lose, the more things fall apart and the ecosystem stops functioning. It is inevitable.” Recent aerial pictures show to what extent nature regained its rights on Phillip Island.