Poor Them

Here, in a state whose economy and mindset are bound up in an endless war against nature, private citizens have beheld the paralysis of government agencies and began taking conservation into their own hands.

If all this sounds a little bleak and dramatic, remember that Australia has the worst record of mammal extinction in the world. Since European settlement twenty seven species have disapeared entirely and 1500 birds, reptiles, plants, amphibians and mammals are currently vulnerable or endangered. marsupials, the creatures unique to the continent, are in perilous decline and many of the smaller species are gone for good.

Tim Winton
Silent Country: Travels through a Recovering Landscape