I
WATCH AS THE rusty strands break apart in my
fingers, knowing full well that this fence in the
South Australian desert means life or death for
the bilbies, bettongs and other rare animals
inside it. My companion, biologist Dr Kath
Tuft, is frowning at other decaying strands.
We have paused on the boundary of Arid Recovery,
the 12,300ha wildlife reserve Kath manages, to inspect
its predator-proof fence. The rust we find is confined
to some strands buried in shallow sand, which means
that no fox or cat can get through, but this section
will need replacing sooner rather than later. Should
the corrosion worsen, rabbits will claw their way
through, foxes and cats will follow and...you can
guess the rest.The alkaline soil out here wreaks havoc with bur-
ied fencing, and it plays with my imagination as well.
That imposing fence we had been driving beside now
seems f limsy, as if spun of cotton. The stories Kath
tells don’t help. Holes have been made by buck kan-
garoos, one on each side, kicking each other in tiffs
over females. Those holes aren’t the worst kind, she
says, because they appear some way above the ground,
so predators are slow to find them.
In western Queensland, Currawinya National Park
had a fence that failed in a spectacular way. Corrosion
following sustained f loods in 2011–12 allowed cats to
enter a 2500ha enclosure and few, if any, of the bilbies
inside survived. Fenced peninsulas in Shark Bay,
Western Australia, have foxes creeping around theJuly. August 69exclosure
(say eks’klohzhuh)
noun an area fenced to prevent
animals getting into it, as to prevent
feral animals from attacking farm
animals, or domestic animals from
stripping vegetation.Kath Tu carries out essential maintenance on
Arid Recovery’s floppy top fences. The fence design,
pioneered here, prevents foxes from digging under and
cats from climbing over into the ‘exclosures’ where
reintroduced native species live.