Professor Kingsley Dixon AO leads project to save WA icon
World-renowned botanist and WA’s 2026 Senior Australian of the Year, Professor Kingsley Dixon AO, is heading up a project that aims to save WA’s Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo from extinction by restoring urgently needed habitat.
Corridors for Carnaby’s will see more than 200,000 trees planted south of Mandurah to connect the much-loved birds with critical habitat for food, water and nesting sites.
The project will reconnect the link between the Carnaby’s winter feeding areas and summer breeding grounds, lost due to land clearing for farming and development, which is said to be the cause of the population of Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos being more than halved since the 1970s.
The Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo is now considered endangered.
Speaking to Mark Gibson on the ABC Perth Breakfast show, Kingsley explained: “It’s the first step in the big journey. This is the largest single planting ever undertaken to bring back the food that only Carnaby’s can get into and it’s the food that Carnaby’s evolved to eat. They are two of the key Banksia species that used to grow over all of Perth, but they’re all gone. In 2024, there was a four-fold increase of the number of starving and malnourished Carnaby’s being presented at the Animal Care Centres. It was a wake-up call.”
The project, which has been funded by the Amazon Right Now Climate Fund, will restore 1,000 hectares of habitat and install 50 artificial nests and 20 solar powered water stations.
The plan is to get the community involved.
“We’re already planting in four schools this winter and we want to talk to a lot more for the next two-and-a-half years to start planting Banksias. A lot of them have spare areas around their ovals and there’s nothing better than seeing the smile on kids’ faces when you tell them that Carnaby’s are going to be feeding on your Banksias in about 3-4 years’ time.”
Find out more about the project on the Corridors for Carnaby’s website.