Chainsawed logs transformed into wildlife habitat on Queens Domain

Published on 07 September 2023

The City of Hobart is rolling out the next phase of a project to restore nationally threatened grassy woodlands within the city limits by installing large habitat tree logs across the northern section of the Queens Domain.

"The City of Hobart has made great strides over the past decade restoring native grasslands on the Queens Domain and these new habitat logs will provide extra habitat and safety for wildlife like our eastern barred bandicoots, lizards, frogs and skinks,” Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said.

"Over the past 200 years the Domain has seen all sorts of development, including abattoirs, quarry building, cattle grazing and it was even home to a tip.

"These activities all took a toll on the Domain's native bushland, but we are now seeing the natural values of this much-loved space bounce back through our Grassy Woodlands Restoration Project.

"The large old logs being installed across the northern section of the Queens Domain will replace valuable ground habitat lost through years of development, bushfires and even wood hooking, which is now illegal."

Up to 40 large logs will be installed on the Domain by the City of Hobart's fire and biodiversity staff, who have chainsawed hollows and grooves into the fallen timber to create habitat for birds, micro bats and other wildlife.

Sustainability in Infrastructure Portfolio Committee Chair Bill Harvey said the bounce back in native wildlife on the Queens Domain over the past five years had been extraordinary.

"It's becoming a common site for families visiting Legacy Park on the Queens Domain to see southern brown bandicoots hunting for grubs on the nearby lawns and we are seeing more raptors hovering over the Domain looking for prey, a sign of a healthy, thriving ecosystem,” Cr Harvey said.

"We have opened up much of the threatened native grasslands by cutting back she-oaks and restoring the Domain to its original landscape when it was a thriving hunting ground for the traditional owners, the Muwinina people.

"Our fire and biodiversity team and volunteers with our Bushcare program have all played a vital role in restoring the Domain's critically endangered lowland grasslands, and helping rid the area of environmental weeds.

"This is our longest-running ecological restoration project and something to be incredibly proud of in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

“The landscape of the Queens Domain has a long and rich living history of Tasmanian Aboriginal occupation and the remnant bushland that exists today has been shaped by thousands of years of Aboriginal burning practices.”