Voice of Country

Country has always had a voice – and always had carers. Let’s grow a culture where more Australians listen, learn and unite together as shared custodians of this land.

Our Work  |  Voice of Country | Photo: Justin McManus

 

When Country is healthy, it speaks – in the rustling of leaves, the calls of native birds and the flow of clean rivers.

This ancient voice, long honoured by First Nations peoples, is now harder to hear – drowned out by the noise of environmental destruction. But it still calls to us. And it’s calling louder than ever.

Since colonisation, we’ve lost more than 100 unique native species – gone forever. And with every extinction, we also lose irreplaceable ecological knowledge and cultural practices rooted in tens of thousands of years of care.

Invasive species are one of the biggest drivers of this damage. They’re wiping out plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth and eroding the deep connections between First Nations peoples and the places they’ve cared for over countless generations.

Country is crying out. If we truly listened, we’d hear the call to slow invasive species and build a culture that listens, connects and cares for it.

“A Voice of Country is basically that, giving our soil, our water and our species, their voice because they actually haven’t had a voice for 235 years.”

Richard Swain, Indigenous Ambassador for the Invasive Species Council and Voice of Country campaign lead.

Learn more about Richard.

Invasive species don’t just harm wildlife. They threaten food sources, bush medicines, sacred sites and totem species. The cultural cost is profound – and often invisible to policymakers.

First Nations rangers are on the ground, doing vital work to protect Country. But too often, they’re excluded from decisions about funding, policy and priorities. That must change.

The Voice of Country campaign works to change that – by elevating Indigenous voices, restoring the voice of the land itself and calling for bold reform.

We’re bringing together a growing chorus of First Nations leaders with deep knowledge of Country and care. By listening to these voices – and combining Indigenous knowledge with the best of modern science – we can reverse extinctions and begin to heal the land.

We are calling for a federal Indigenous Caring for Country Commissioner – an independent advocate who will:

  • Bridge the gap between First Nations grassroots environmental movements, rangers, land managers and decision-makers.
  • Be a public advocate for maintaining connection to Country and the impacts of invasive species on First Nations communities.
  • Ensure resourcing, coordination and government support required to effectively manage invasive species on Aboriginal land.

We have a choice. We can make this the decade of healing – or the decade of saying goodbye. It’s time to listen to the Voice of Country.

Voice of Country Pledge

In taking this pledge you commit to listening to Voice of Country – and take responsibility for protecting our ancient rivers, diverse landscapes and unique species from invasive species.

Take the Pledge

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and organisations — add your name to our call for a Commissioner for Country.

Voice of Country is Indigenous-led

If your Indigenous-led organisation wants to be part of this collective and powerful voice on managing Country, reach out to Richard Swain, Voice of Country Project Lead.

Contact Richard

Your gift is a lifeline for nature.

Our protected areas are being trashed, trampled, choked and polluted by an onslaught of invaders. Invasive species are already the overwhelming driver of our animal extinction rate, and are expected to cause 75 of the next 100 extinctions.

But you can help to turn this around and create a wildlife revival in Australia. 

From numbats to night parrots, a tax-deductible donation today can help defend our wildlife against the threat of invasive weeds, predators, and diseases.

As the only national advocacy environment group dedicated to stopping this mega threat, your gift will make a big difference.

Do you need help?

Accordion Content

A silent crisis is unfolding across Australia. Every year, billions of native animals are hunted and killed by cats and foxes. Fire ants continue to spread and threaten human health. And the deadly strain of bird flu looms on the horizon. Your donation today will be used to put the invasive species threat in the media, make invasive species a government priority, ensure governments take rapid action to protect nature and our remarkable native wildlife from invasives-led extinction, death and destruction.

Donate Now

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    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.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    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.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]