Australia’s most important bird - and the farmers protecting it
By Daneka Hill
Torrumbarry farmer Andrew McGillivray with a mural of the plains-wanderer created on his old farm shed. Photo: Cath Grey
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To the people who know of it, the plains-wanderer is a big deal.
They are elusive, considered Australia s most genetically unique bird and critically endangered but one Torrumbarry dairy farm happens to have an unusually high number of them.
Andrew and Judy McGillivray have long used a 323 ha section of their farm to ‘holiday’ their dairy cows in winter before calving and agist young cattle.
It turns out the gradual grazing and ‘hands-off’ approach to the back paddock was maintaining an ideal grassland habitat for the plains-wanderer.