• WU Team
  • 11 June 2024
  • 12:15 pm
  • 0 comments

Monitoring the Southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby - an East Gippsland treasure


In the far north-western corner of the Snowy River National Park in East Gippsland lies Victoria’s deepest gorge, the Little River Gorge. It is fitting that this rare and unique habitat is home to a little-known, extremely rare and unique mammal – the Southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby (sBTRW).


The species (Petrogale penicillata) was thought to be extinct in Victoria in the early 1900s due to habitat loss, hunting for the fur trade, the introduction of the Red Fox and persecution by landowners as a perceived pest. Fortunately, it was rediscovered in the 1930s, but its survival remains tenuous. This last extant population consists of fewer than 50 individuals and has been closely managed and monitored for the past 25 years.

Senior Field Ecologist Rachael Bartlett beginning the descent into the valley to collect cameras.

Photo by Jo Durrant

Captions (l to r): Female wallaby, Kiki, after being fitted with her unique colour coded ear-tag. Photo with thanks to DEECA. PV Ranger Jo Durrant (left), Wildlife Unlimited Ecologist Rena Gaborov (centre), PV Ranger Ella Carr (right). Photo by Jo Durrant. PV Ranger Ella Carr navigating Little River. Photo by Jo Durrant).

Collaboration in the field


Wildlife Unlimited’s founding director, Jim Reside, along with several staff have played key roles in the management of the East Gippsland population since the early 1990s, providing both expert advice and intrepid field skills to work safely on the steep slopes of the gorge.


Management of sBTRW is a huge collaborative effort between DEECA, Parks Victoria, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, East Gippsland Conservation Management Network (EGCMN), Mt Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Centre, universities and researchers and others.

Key threats to the population include:

  • Introduced predators – foxes and cats – predating on both adults and juveniles.
  • Genetic decline due to the small and isolated nature of the population.
  • Stochastic events such as drought and wildfire (upper parts of the gorge were burnt in the 2019/20 Black Summer Fires).


Key actions being undertaken include:

  • Pest control to reduce mortality due to predation.
  • Captive breeding and translocations to increase genetic diversity, population size and area of occupancy.
  • Ongoing monitoring and research to guide adaptive management and inform rapid response to any sudden decline.

The southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby is also present in NSW and QLD. Due to the isolated nature of populations following massive restrictions across its range, the species is divided into three Evolutionarily Significant Units : Southern, Central and Northern. The Southern ESU – the Victorian population - is the smallest and most threatened.

Captions (l to r): Senior Field Ecologist Rena Gaborov traversing Little River. Photo by Jo Durrant. Middle: Little River Gorge, Snowy River National Park, East Gippsland. Photo by Rena Gaborov. Left: Brush-tailed Rock-wallabies have incredible grainy textured foot pads enabling them to grip onto rock as they nimbly navigate their preferred habitat of precipitous complex cliffs. Photo with thanks to DEECA).

Introduction of hybrid Southern/Central ESU captive-bred rock-wallabies from Mt Rothwell into Little River Gorge is the current best strategy to reverse genetic decline. Rock-wallabies are carried into the gorge in specially designed backpacks like a joey in a pouch and released in carefully selected locations

Camera work


Staff from Wildlife Unlimited, along with DEECA staff and Parks Victoria Rangers, recently conducted the 11th annual autumn camera monitoring survey. Our long-term Senior Ecologist Rena Gaborov has been analysing and reporting on the population for over a decade, knows every wallaby by name and is very skilled at rock-hopping back and forth across Little River to get to camera sites.


An established array of cameras sampling all occupied habitat in the gorge was deployed and left in place for one month. Rock-wallaby individuals can be identified by colour coded ear-tags or, if untagged, by distinguishing features such as chest blaze pattern or scars.

Captions (l to r):

• Camera site in Little River Gorge - sites are set up on animal pathways and lucerne is used to attract animals to camera stations. Photo by Rena Gaborov.

• Adult female with young at foot at a camera site in Little River Gorge. Photo by Wildlife Unlimited.

• Hay nets filled with lucerne are irresistible to the rock-wallabies. Suspending camera lures up high so the animals reach up to feed helps us to obtain high quality full-body images so we can positively identify individual animals. Mother Uma is pictured with her young at foot. Photo with thanks to DEECA.

The data collected will allow assessment of current population size, breeding success and juvenile survival, mortality rates and any patterns within this, such as pronounced losses in particular locations or age classes. Of particular interest is survival and breeding success of genetic hybrid captive-bred individuals which were translocated into the Gorge from 2019 - 2023. We are committed to continuing Jim Reside and Wildlife Unlimited’s legacy of caring for and conserving the southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby.


At Wildlife Unlimited we are passionate about and committed to ongoing collaborative management and conservation of East Gippsland’s threatened species.

Thank you!


The 11th annual autumn camera monitoring survey was funded by the Rendere Environmental Trust