Wild Otways Initiative

The Australian Government’s ‘Wild Otways Initiative’ is a three-year $6M commitment to achieving on-ground outcomes that will improve the protection and management of threatened species in the Otways, Victoria.

As part of this Initiative, the Conservation Ecology Centre is:

• Critically assessing populations of pigs and deer across the Otways and identifying regions where management can be most effective for preserving EPBC-listed threatened species and protecting vital assets such as water catchments and cultural heritage. Read more here.
• Working to better reduce the impact of foxes and cats on threatened species in post-fire landscapes by testing whether controlling foxes and cats, or changing the way some planned burns are conducted, can help threatened species survive in a post-fire landscape. Find out more.

You can find all the latest project updates in our newsfeed here.

Much of this work is done in tandem or partnership with our other research projects including:

• Otways Ecological Research Forum – funded by The Ian Potter Foundation. Results from the Wild Otways Initiative projects will be presented at this forum each year.
• Potoroo Collaring Project – funded by the Hermon Slade Foundation since 2020, this Wild Otways project is being undertaken by Mark le Pla as a part of his PhD with the University of Melbourne.
• Potoroo Spatial Distribution Model – funded by The Ian Potter Foundation
• Carlisle Fuel Hazard Model – funded by The Ian Potter Foundation

The Wild Otways Initiative is being delivered by the Corangamite CMA in partnership with public and private land managers to deliver cross-tenure, threatened species management research and on-ground programs targeting priority species and their supporting habitat in the Otways. You can read more about the other projects on the CCMA website.