Cooloola nat park burnt out?

["Ross Macfarlane" <>]

It's a good point, & the mallee emu-wren is a case in point. After a fire in 
Ngarkat CP in SA some years ago, the population disappeared from that area, 
leaving the bird with just one stronghold, in Murray-Sunset and 
Hattah-Kulkyne NPs straddling the Calder Highway. Sarah Brown's work has 
shown that while the local population is healthy (in the 10s of thousands 
from memory), they are sedentary and have poor dispersal; in other words 
once they're lost from an area it's very hard  for them to recolonise it.
Gone from Ngarkat. Gone from Annuello FFR. Gone from all other known 
previous habitats.
One big fire in the in Murray-Sunset / Hattah triodia country, & the species 
could be extinct.
And it's not the only species in that boat; not by a long chalk...

Ross Macfarlane