Invasive species have become one of the largest threats facing Australia’s natural environment, but their continued arrival and spread is all too often neglected as a conservation issue.
The Froggatt Awards are given to those who have made a major contribution to protecting Australia’s native plants and animals, ecosystems and people from dangerous new invasive species.
Awarded to Gregory Andrews, Australia’s first Threatened Species Commissioner, for his enthusiastic and fearless efforts in raising awareness about the impact of feral cats and other invasive species.
He has built a high profile in the community about the impact of invasive species, particularly feral cats and the need for their control to assist threatened species recovery. He has also been an effective operator within government and instrumental in improving state and territory coordination.
As a result of Gregory’s efforts, there is now widespread understanding of the serious damage caused by feral cats to Australia’s threatened mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds, as well as a science-based plan in place to coordinate and stimulate action.
Former Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews receives his Froggatt Award from our CEO Andrew Cox.
Awarded to SPRATS, the Sea Spurge Action Teams, for 10 years work eradicating sea spurge from Tasmania’s rugged southwest coastline. During this period more than 150 remote area volunteers have removed 14.2 million sea purge plants from 600km of coastline using 6000 hours of labour valued at over $1.4 million.
Now, 99.5% of the treated area is sea spurge free. Areas have also been treated for marram grass and two of the region’s only blackberry infestations.
Volunteers would undertake trips of between eight days and three weeks, arriving by foot, helicopter, boat or fixed-wing aircraft. Methods used include hand weeding, ground and aerial spraying. SPRATS is a WildCare group working in partnership with the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service.
Both sea spurge and marram grass are recognised as threats to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. They can change the shape and structure of dune and beach environments by displacing native plants, they adversely impact coastal herbfields, grasslands, shrublands, shorebird habitats and marsupial feeding areas.
Jon Marsden-Smedley and Chris Arthur from Tasmania’s Sea Spurge Action Teams.
Awarded to Ecology Australia for their generous pro bono support surveying Australia’s only smooth newt infestation.
The smooth newt was first detected in Melbourne’s suburbs in 2011. The newt poses a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems across southern Australia. This was the first time the smooth newt has been found outside its native range in Europe.
After state and federal governments decided not to eradicate the invasive smooth newt in 2013, monitoring was halted and the newt allowed to spread. An Ecology Australia survey in spring 2016 revealed the newt threat remains, with several breeding colonies confirmed, one in a new location.
The research support provided by Ecology Australia is valued at more than $10,000. They have provided pro bono support to the Invasive Species Council since its formation in 2003.
Bernadett Schmidt receives the Froggatt Award, awarded to Ecology Australia.
In 2020 we saw some outstanding efforts from the winners of our annual Froggatt Awards.
In 2019 our Froggatt Awards went to Southern Downs Regional Council, Milo Yeigh and to the Hon David Littleproud.
In 2018 our Froggatt Awards went to community group Save Kosci, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Tarrangower Cactus Control Group.
In 2017 our Froggatt Awards went to the independent panel reviewing the national biosecurity system and Nic Gill, author of Animal Eco-Warriors: Humans and Animals Working Together to Protect Our Planet.
In 2016 our Froggatt Awards went to Gregory Andrews, Australia’s first Threatened Species Commissioner, SPRATS, the Sea Spurge Action Teams and Ecology Australia.
In 2015 our Froggatt Awards went to Australian Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Barnaby Joyce, NSW red imported fire ant response and Senate Environment and Communications References Committee.
The Invasive Species Council acknowledges the Traditional Custodians throughout Australia and their connections to land and sea. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. The Invasive Species Council supports voting ‘YES’ for a Voice to Parliament.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
Dear Project Team,
[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.]
I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.
The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.
The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.
This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.
Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.
Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.
Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.
I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.
