Conservation

Passive acoustic monitoring offers a promising, cost-effective approach to tracking Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus) populations across the Great Barrier Reef. Combining acoustic recordings with visual surveys, camera traps, and bird banding can help validate monitoring techniques, estimate population size and breeding success, and establish reliable baseline data. Scalable monitoring methods are particularly important for remote seabird colonies, supporting the early detection of population changes and informing long-term conservation management across Queensland’s island ecosystems. 

The Endangered Southern Black-throated Finch (Poephila cincta cincta; BTF) is one of seven declining granivorous birds in Australia, and has disappeared from over 80% of its former range. BTF have a strong association with the Black-faced Woodswallow (Artamus cinereus) in mixed-species flocks, which are more conspicuous due to their ariel hawking of arthropod prey. The primary aim of this research is to determine if focusing search efforts on Black-faced Woodswallows will increase our ability to detect BTF, particularly throughout its inland distribution in the Desert Uplands Bioregion. The secondary aim is to better understand the habitat features associated with BTF. 

The scholarship will be used to pay for the shipping and processing of Carpentarian Grasswren genetic samples (pin feathers). The primary aim of this investigation is to reveal the genetic structuring of the population across the species' distribution. From this, we can make inferences about population connectivity, and other genetic processes such as inbreeding and genetic drift, which have implications for conserving the species and understanding how wildfire, the key threatening process, shapes the species distribution

The PhD project is investigating various aspects of the endangered Carpentarian Grasswren’s (Amytornis dorotheae) ecology and habitat requirements including how they persist in a fire-prone landscape. A number of birds in the species’ most southerly sub-population will be studied intensively for three years to uncover aspects of their autecology. Additionally, some aspects of the project will involve studying Carpentarian Grasswren and its habitat across its entire distribution in QLD and NT. This will provide information critical to effective conservation management.

The Northern Masked Owl (NMO) is listed as Vulnerable under the EPBC Act, Vulnerable in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and Priority 1 in Western Australia. The NMO is considered to have three, potentially disjunct populations in north-east Queensland, the Top End and the Kimberley. The taxonomic status of the north-east Queensland NMO population remains uncertain, but is currently considered a distinct subspecies – the ‘Cape York Masked Owl’ (Tyto novaehollandiae galei).

The Buff-breasted Button-quail (Turnix olivii) is arguably the most poorly understood of all Australian birds. Currently listed as Endangered under the EPBC Act with a population estimate of as few as 500 birds, the species has never been the focus of ecological and conservation research, and its potential extreme rarity means almost nothing is known of its basic biology, such as habitat use, breeding, diet, population trends or threats. Despite its status, there are no formal conservation actions underway to secure the species, due largely to the fundamental gaps in our knowledge.