The Bush Blocks Guardians Inc. (BBG) is an incorporated association and not-for-profit conservation group focused on the preservation of Western Australia’s unique biological and cultural heritage. The group was formed in 2021, as a collection of like-minded people with a passion for conserving, protecting and restoring the state’s world renowned environment, with an initial focus on the Wheatbelt.

We aim to use any land acquired to increase the awareness and enjoyment of the natural environment and its rich cultural history, among members and the general community.  We also plan to foster scientific research using non-destructive methods, and to enhance and promote indigenous knowledge and management techniques. The lands will have covenants attached to prevent any future clearing and development.

Read about the first property we are buying in November 2021 here.

We are seeking additional funds to help with rehabilitation, repairs and farm junk removal so please make a donation.

Objectives of the BBG

The objectives of the group are to buy and manage land in Western Australia to conserve and restore the natural environment. We are initially targeting land in the Wheatbelt, particularly adjacent to existing nature reserves, as the region is poorly represented in our reserve system and contains a range of threatened flora and fauna. 

We aim to use any land acquired to increase the awareness and enjoyment of the natural environment and its rich cultural history, among BBG members and the general community.  We also plan to foster scientific research using non-destructive methods, and to enhance and promote indigenous knowledge and management techniques. The lands will have covenants attached to prevent any future clearing and development.

How Will BBG Fund Its Purchases and Manage the Bush?

We will be raising funds to buy and manage the bush blocks and cover other expenses using these methods:

• Donations including tax deductible;
• Sourcing grants from government, other organisations and philanthropic trusts that have an interest in our objectives;
• Crowd sourcing for specific projects;
• Gathering members for the group who will pay an annual fee.

Why Is BBG So Important?

About 95% of the WA Wheatbelt has been cleared for farming, with most of the uncleared areas being non-cultivable granite outcrops and narrow strips of perimeter bush, and some of these are preserved in postage-stamp sized nature reserves. The extensive land clearance and degradation associated with agriculture, in combination with weed invasion and predation by cats and foxes have devastated the region’s unique biodiversity. Unlike regions outside the Wheatbelt, there are no national parks or areas of wilderness here. Our aim is to reverse the situation and strategically buy both uncleared and cleared land with the aim to rehabilitate and reintroduce missing flora and fauna and hopefully link many of these areas together to help them become sustainable. A secondary benefit of revegetating areas in this region is to help slow the rising water tables and resulting salinisation of our soils and waterways, which is predicted to render even further large swathes of the Wheatbelt unsuitable for cropping.

Aside from a few individuals who have bought modest-sized bush blocks and some farmers who have fenced and rehabilitated small sections of their land, there is no government or organisations currently undertaking what we aim to achieve. In the southern wheatbelt, the collective Gondwana Link effort is making great strides in preserving and revegetating large areas. And nationally Bush Heritage and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy are adding large holdings to their private conservation reserves, but have done little or nothing in our targeted region.

On-ground Conservation

Conservation actions to conserve and restore may include:

• Acquisition of land to ensure the cessation of clearing and degradation associated with agriculture;
• Revegetation of previously cleared land;
• Protection of biological or cultural significant areas including:
  • Breeding Sites for threatened fauna (e.g. Malleefowl);
  • Archaeological or anthropological sites (e.g. gnamma holes, artefact scatters);
  • Threatened flora;
• Feral animal control;
• Establishment of fencing to protect areas, including a predator proof enclosure;
• Facilitation of research, biological and archaeological surveys;
• Long-term monitoring of flora and fauna; and
• Potential fauna translocations