Will you help the Carlisle Heath recover from the 2026 bushfires?
The CEC is an ACNC-registered charity and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
The flames have subsided, but the recovery is only just beginning. Your donation today funds the science and stewardship needed to bring the Carlisle Heathlands back to life.
Will you help us heal the heathlands?
The smoke has cleared over the Carlisle Heath, but the recovery has only just begun.
In January 2026, bushfires tore through more than 11,000 hectares of the western Otways - an area 100 times the size of Melbourne’s CBD. This landscape, ecologically significant and known to Traditional Custodians as "Ground Parrot Country". was scorched by intense heat. The impact on our forests and heathlands has been devastating.
But we are not starting from scratch. For over a decade, our researchers have lived and worked in this landscape. We have built a powerful baseline of ecological data that now serves as our map for recovery.
We aren't just guessing how to help; we are bringing science and stewardship to every hectare.
Your support will enable us to respond to this crisis.
The CEC is an ACNC-registered charity and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Progress on the Ground
The environmental response to these fires is being coordinated across many partners, including Forest Fire Management Victoria, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation, the University of Melbourne, and Parks Victoria.
Each is contributing what they can right now to ensure this unique landscape has the best chance possible of a full recovery.
Thanks to the first $25,000 we’ve raised through the Otways Bushfire Wildlife and Habitat Recovery Fund, our crews have already deployed 120 remote wildlife monitoring cameras across the heath.
These cameras are placed in the exact locations where we have years of pre-fire data, providing a rare and powerful "before and after" look at the impact of a major bushfire.
By April, we will have the first wave of data to help us understand how wildlife is responding to the burn.
But there is a critical gap between the emergency and the arrival of grant funding for this work. If we wait months for grant funding, we’ll miss the most vital window for monitoring the landscape's first breath of life.
Your support today will help heal the heathlands. Donations to the Otways Bushfire Wildlife and Habitat Recovery Fund will support urgent action to protect surviving wildlife and the long-term recovery of the Carlisle Heathlands and surrounding habitats.
The CEC is an ACNC-registered charity and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
The Funding Gap: Why We Need You Now
While we are applying for as much grant funding as we can to support this vital work, disaster funding moves slowly—nature does not.
There is a critical "knowledge window" open right now that we cannot afford to miss.
Nature doesn’t wait for paperwork.
Your donation today provides the immediate "bridge" funding we need to take these urgent actions right now:
A Second Camera Deployment: We must place another 120 remote cameras in a second location get the full story of how small mammals are responding to this fire.
Vegetation Recovery Surveys: We need to monitor how the unique flora is regenerating against our ten-year baseline. This will tell us if management actions are needed to ensure this landscape can provide homes for important and vulnerable species into the future.
Protecting the Green Shoots: As plants begin to recover, they attract herbivores like deer and pigs. We must monitor these threats immediately to ensure they don't graze the recovery into the ground.
Will you help us bridge the gap and ensure that science guides the recovery of the Carlisle Heathlands?
The CEC is an ACNC-registered charity and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
