Wadderin Sanctuary
Common name Scientific name Category
Brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula
Red-tailed phascogale Phascogale calura Endangered
Brush-tailed bettong ( woylie ) Bettongia penicillata Endangered
Banded hare-wallaby Lagostrophus fasciatus Vulnerable
Western brush wallaby Macropus irma
Southern brown bandicoot ( quenda ) Isoodon obesulus
Malleefowl Leipoa ocellata Vulnerable
Bush stone-curlew Burhinus grallarius
Fauna
The mammal fauna of the reserve prior to the fencing of the Sanctuary and the reintroductions detailed below included only the echidna , western grey kangaroo , and euro and introduced species such as the fox , feral cat , rabbit , house mouse and black rat . [ 2 ] Bruce Leake , a farmer from nearby Kellerberrin , documented the rich past fauna of the eastern wheatbelt in the late 1800s . [ 4 ] These included possum , phascogale , tammar wallaby , brush wallaby , rock-wallaby , nailtail wallaby , banded hare-wallaby , rufous hare-wallaby , woylie , boodie , pig-footed bandicoot , dalgite , numbat and chuditch . Many of these species would have occurred in the Narembeen district also . Unfortunately , very little of this fauna remains . It has only been comparatively recently that this loss of fauna has been attributed largely to predation by introduced foxes and feral cats . [ 5 ] Listed in the table below are the eight species that have been reintroduced to Wadderin Sanctuary since 2009 . The category gives the status under the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999 .
Wadderin Sanctuary is a nature conservation project within the Shire of Narembeen in the eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia. It is about 290 km east of Perth and 8 kilometres north of the town of Narembeen. Wadderin is surrounded by a fox- and cat-proof fence that was completed in early 2008. This has allowed the reintroduction of fauna that is uncommon or locally extinct in the wheatbelt, and includes species that are considered threatened at the national level. Wadderin is one of very few sanctuary projects within Australia managed by a local community. The community group includes current and retired farmers and townsfolk. Another within Western Australia is the Heirisson Prong project at Useless Loop at Shark Bay. These projects were set up to exclude foxes and feral cats and so allow reconstruction of the past native fauna.