Wallabies

Wallabies feature in Aboriginal creation stories – the Wallaby Dreaming story of central Australia, for instance. They also provided fur and were an important source of protein.

Much like kangaroos, today wallabies are an important symbol of Australia on the world stage. Our national rugby union team plays as The Wallabies.

Where do wallabies live?

Wallabies are widespread across mainland Australia, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea. In Australia, different species prefer different habitats.

Rock wallabies live almost exclusively in rugged terrain, along rocky hills, boulders, sandstone outcrops and caves. Other species prefer arid grassy plains, dense coastal health, open forests or rainforests. The distribution of most species has shrunk since European settlement.

If you’re from southern Australia, you may be familiar with the relatively common Agile Wallaby or the Red-necked Wallaby. Some other species are increasingly hard to come across.

Under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the Proserpine Rock-wallaby is Endangered; the Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby is Near Threatened; and the mala (Rufous Hare Wallaby or Warrup), the Black-footed Rock-wallaby and Bridled Nail-tail Wallaby are Vulnerable to extinction.

And sadly, some species are now extinct. The Eastern Hare Wallaby, the Crescent Nail-tail Wallaby are two species that have become extinct since European settlement.

Introduced herbivores – rabbits, sheep, goats and cattle – compete with wallabies for food, particularly problematic in arid areas where food can be scarce.

Agricultural development has led to land clearing and habitat loss, fragmentation or degradation – major threats for wallaby species. Some are considered an agricultural pest. Finally, changes in traditional burning regimes has changed grassland habitats in particular: this has reduced wallabies’ food source, and increased the number of devastating hot summer bushfires.

What’s Bush Heritage doing?

We have wallabies on the vast majority of our reserves. We’re happy to have seen the endangered Bridled Nail-tail Wallaby on Goonderoo in Queensland. The Threatened Black-Gloved Wallaby occurs on our Gondwana Link properties and Kojonup. We’re revegetating cleared farmland to create more wallaby habitat and our monitoring shows they’re using it.

The Near Threatened Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby has also been spotted on Boolcoomatta in South Australia.

We look after these wallabies by destocking properties, controlling feral herbivores, and controlling feral predators such as foxes. By reintroducing fire regimes more akin to traditional practices, we’re helping restore grasslands that provide food for wallabies.