Welcome to the summer edition of Nature Matters, and our final for the year. We are excited to share our latest updates with you.

This edition features updates from across our nature reserve network, including our latest nature reserve acquisition, Pooginook West, in the Riverland region of South Australia. It also includes updates from our team, recent events and more.

We are seeking your support to kickstart the restoration of Pooginook West, through our Forever Nature Fund Summer Appeal.

Nature Foundation is delighted to announce the acquisition and establishment of its tenth nature reserve, Pooginook West Nature Reserve. This 2,396-hectare reserve is on the traditional lands of the Ngawait people, about 25 kilometres northeast of Waikerie.

Crucially, Pooginook West sits beside Pooginook Conservation Park to significantly increase the connectivity and amount of protected land available for local species. The site will also provide a southward migration pathway for key arid-zone species seeking cooler conditions as the climate changes. 

Since 2022, 920 Iron-grass plants have been planted across Tiliqua Nature Reserve, a key step in restoring this Critically Endangered ecological community, located near Burra in South Australia’s mid north.

Approximately 680 Iron-grass (Lomandra multiflora ssp. Dura, Lomandra densiflora, and Lomandra effusa) plants, planted at the start of the restoration project, were contained within planting exclosures constructed to protect these highly palatable young plants from grazing by sheep and kangaroos. Three years on, these exclosures can be removed, allowing grazing between the establishing plants and assisting habitat management for the Endangered Pygmy Bluetongue Lizard (Tiliqua adelaidensis) and the Critically Endangered Pale Sun-moth (Synemon selene) that call the nature reserve home.

Following another successful Artist Residency Program and exhibition, applications are open for the 2026 Artist Residency Program.

A group of eager Nature Foundation volunteers and staff undertook our first working bee at Bullock Bridge Nature Reserve following its acquisition in early 2024, and the subsequent baseline biodiversity monitoring surveys that were conducted throughout late 2024 to mid-2025.

Baseline biodiversity monitoring surveys are conducted across all of our nature reserves following acquisition to determine the landscape's initial state, allowing us to develop tailored conservation management plans and measure the impacts of our efforts.