ORIGINALLY FOR SALE TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER, TWO PRISTINE ISLANDS OFF AUSTRALIA’S COAST HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM DEVELOPMENT HELL THANKS TO A SELFLESS ACT BY A NOT-FOR-PROFIT GROUP
- **Bullock Island and Little Dog Island**, two saltmarsh islands off the coast of **South Gippsland**, have been purchased by **Nooramunga Land and Sea** to protect their fragile ecosystems from farming and development.
- **The islands** are crucial habitats for endangered species of flora and fauna and have the potential to play a significant role in tackling **carbon emissions**.
- **The acquisition** is part of a larger plan by **Nooramunga Land and Sea** to use private funding to buy more land in the future, following in the footsteps of other successful conservation models.
Imagine owning your own private island, sounds like a luxury reserved for the extremely wealthy, right? Wrong! **Nooramunga Land and Sea**, a not-for-profit group, has flipped this narrative on its head, purchasing two small islands off the coast of **Gippsland** with the sole aim of protecting their environments from development forever.
For roughly the price of an inner-city apartment, the group has acquired **Bullock Island** and **Little Dog Island**, both of which were zoned for farming and have evidence of previous attempts at farming. However, thanks to the swift action of **Nooramunga Land and Sea**, these islands will now be dedicated to conservation, with no further development allowed.
**Steve Enticott**, director of **Nooramunga Land and Sea**, was a key driver in the acquisition. He stressed the importance of protecting these critical habitats, “They really aren’t highly productive farming land. And they are critical for birdlife, wildlife — habitat that is in really short supply on the **Victorian** coastline.”
**Bullock Island**, listed as a wetland of international importance under the **RAMSAR Convention**, was purchased with funding from the **Upotipotpon Foundation**. The island’s saltmarsh landscape is home to a variety of habitats, including seagrass and saline meadows, as well as mangrove wetlands. These unique ecosystems have the capacity to capture carbon up to 50 times faster than trees on land and can store it for years.
**Abbi Wills** from **Biodiversity Legacy**, an organisation that supported the purchase, praised **Nooramunga Land and Sea** for pioneering this approach to protect critical saltmarsh ecosystems. “It’s an excellent demonstration of how the approach can be applied at scale to secure ecosystems that are ecologically relevant and provide habitat connectivity within any particular region.”
As the only media outlet granted access to **Bullock Island**, the ABC witnessed the evidence of past attempts at farming, including rusted cattle races and discarded fencing. However, with the island now dedicated to conservation, nature is slowly reclaiming its rightful place. “For years, man tried to farm it, and it probably never should have been farmed out here,” said **Dr. Enticott**. “And now with time and tides, it’s probably going back to what it should be.”