Watching the ecologists was Mark Norman, the chief conservation scientist with Parks Victoria, who abruptly stopped work after spotting a rare butterfly flying over the stream. Marchant was summoned in his waders to identify the species, net in hand.<\/p>\n
Norman is responsible for protecting the endangered species, from eastern bristlebirds and pygmy-possums to growling grass frogs and ground parrots. So far, they have been spared the worst of human activity. But Norman is worried by a different threat: the steady southward march of invasive species.<\/p>\n About 680 foxes, 320 cats and thousands of hog deer have moved through pastoral land to damage the promontory\u2019s waterways, strip its vegetation, restrict its biodiversity and prey on native animals.<\/p>\n Norman and his team say they have thrown everything at the invading species. Rangers have hiked deep into the wilderness to bait hundreds of cats. Traps have been set. Helicopters have hovered just above treetops as gunmen shoot deer darting through thick scrub. Now they are planning something much bolder.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is moving south with climate change,\u201d Norman says. \u201cThis is the place where you draw a line in the sand and say, \u2018we are going to let things persist here until we turn things around.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That line will soon be a two-metre-high, partially electrified fence running along the park\u2019s northern perimeter. Stretching 10km across a narrow land bridge connecting the prom to the mainland, the fence will run adjacent to farmland and weave around huge shifting sand dunes. To the east, it ends in a protected wetland; on the west, an inlet popular with tourists and fishers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fence is kind of a necessary evil to turn back the wrongs of the past,\u201d Norman says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want these species to go extinct because we failed to manage these cats, foxes and deer. We have animals that are on the brink here and species that we have lost that we could bring back. But it\u2019s all a bit pointless if there\u2019s a constant stream of nasties coming south from the mainland.\u201d<\/p>\n The fence, which still needs final approval and is not expected to be built within the next two years, won\u2019t completely stop the invasion. The rangers don\u2019t believe a sliding gate at the main entrance is practical. Nor will the fence extend into the water on either side. When the tide is out, a muddy pass will open for animals to walk around it.<\/p>\n Ben Fahey, the manger of ecology and strategy with Parks Victoria who is leading the design of the fence, concedes it will be \u201cleaky\u201d. But knowing the entry points allows rangers to focus their baiting and culling on those locations. Already, cameras are being installed near the proposed weak spots to monitor animal movements.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can can keep them out, then we have a really good opportunity to restore those species which are really vulnerable to things like habitat degradation from grazing by deers. Without predators, we expect bandicoots, small mice and the broad-toothed rat to do really, really well,\u201d Fahey says.<\/p>\n The recent arrival of sambar deer in the promontory also has rangers nervous. The much larger deer have enormous antlers and cause havoc to habitats. There are now more than 1m sambar in Victoria and the population is moving south from the alps to the promontory. Three have been shot on the prom so far, including one that swam to an offshore island.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deer are the most devastating,\u201d says Brooke Love, a restoration ecologist. \u201cThey graze tiny, fragile plants. There are thousands of little seedlings all around us that get continually shut down by these deer and never reach maturity. They interrupt the forest\u2019s cycle of life.\u201d<\/p>\n On the edge of heathland expanse, where dozens of threatened eastern bristlebirds were released after their habitat was destroyed in the black summer bushfires, Love recalls how she helped discover an endangered species earlier in the week. The small plant was thought to have been extinct outside a single population near Bredbo, in the alpine region outside Canberra.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the volunteers who was with me at the time turned and said, \u2018I searched the alps for 25 years to find this plant. I never thought I\u2019d find it beside a road at the prom, where there\u2019s no elevation,\u2019\u201d Love says.<\/p>\n \u201cThis place breaks the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n But the fence is not without its critics. Its route has already been changed to account for cultural importance and artefacts of the three Indigenous nations that claim the promontory: the Boonwurrung, Bunurong and Gunaikurnai traditional owner groups.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say that there\u2019s been mixed responses to the fence being a barrier across cultural landscapes,\u201d Norman says. \u201cBut we\u2019re having good conversations about why the need for this is so great.\u201d<\/p>\n A leadership steering committee has been formed to hear the views of traditional owners. Fahey admits there have been challenges, including potential disturbances to important cultural sites.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a large cultural landscape that is really important to three traditional ownership groups. There are a lot of artefacts through the park and tangible cultural heritage,\u201d he says. \u201cWe need to be mindful of that when constructing anything here.\u201d<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the cost. In 2020, $6m was set aside for the fence by the state government as part of a $23m package to improve conservation and tourism. But as the reality of building the fence becomes clearer, that figure could increase.<\/p>\n The rangers believe the fence could be invaluable.<\/p>\n As Norman wades through thick reeds in the Darby Swamp, he says the fence will ensure nine different habitat regions can remain refuges of last resort for struggling species across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could have a 50,000 hectare desert sanctuary and bring back 12 mammals, but here you get ancient cool temperature rainforest, warm temperature rainforest, heathland, mangroves, salt marsh wetland, coastal dune systems, offshore islands with unique genetic diversity, grasslands and open woodlands,\u201d Norman says.<\/p>\n For those devoted to protecting the prom, a \u201cnecessary evil\u201d could be the best shot at saving the future of our native wonders.<\/p>\n