Soil monitoring unearths nature’s treasure trove

Posted on: 16th August 2020

Bush-bashing through thick scrub while hauling heavy field equipment and buckets full of soil is far from a walk in the park.

But it’s a typical day in the life of our Landscape Ecologist Grace Hodder, who spent three weeks taking soil samples on Southern Yorke Peninsula recently, as part of the Marna Banggara project.

While Grace and her crew of volunteers might emerge from field work with scratches, sore shoulders and the occasional tick, they’ll still tell you that surprising encounters with wildlife and unique flora make it all worthwhile.

Here’s what they discovered on Southern Yorke Peninsula in July:

A Malleefowl, which they flushed out of the scrub in Warrenben Conservation Park
Four Whipbirds: They heard three Whipbird calls (one was a pair)
A Tiger Snake!
A tiny skull they think was a Ringtail Possum
An unconfirmed Brushtail Possum in Inneston, which would be well out of its normal range
A range of beautifully-flowering flora such as Templetonia (known as Cocky’s Tongue), Hibbertias, Hardenbergia, Pomaderris and Correas