Will you help the Carlisle Heath recover from the 2026 bushfires?
The CEC is an ACNC-registered charity and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
The flames have subsided, but the recovery is only just beginning. Your donation today funds the science and stewardship needed to bring the Carlisle Heathlands back to life.
Will you help us heal the heathlands?
While the smoke has cleared over the Carlisle Heath, the journey toward healing has only just begun.
The fires that tore through the Otway Ranges near Gellibrand scorched over 11,000 hectares—an area 100 times the size of Melbourne’s CBD.
While communities are rallying around those who lost their homes or had property damaged, relief funding has been made available, and Forest Fire Management Victoria continues to patrol the burned areas, we’ve turned our attention to the environmental response. The immediate flames are gone, but the ecological crisis remains.
The Carlisle Heathlands—a landscape of exceptional importance and a stronghold for species like the Long-nosed Potoroo—now face a long road to recovery. Having spent a decade studying this "Ground Parrot Country" alongside Traditional Owners, our team is uniquely positioned to inform the restoration of this exceptional landscape.
We are asking for your help today to support the Otways Bushfire Wildlife and Habitat Recovery Fund.
While the full impact of this fire on wildlife and habitat will not be known for some time, this fund will support urgent action to protect surviving wildlife and fund research to inform the long-term recovery of the Carlisle Heathlands and surrounding habitats.
Your support will enable us to respond to this crisis.
The CEC is an ACNC-registered charity and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
We have the knowledge from our decade of work to act quickly. We know from our research that these fires will have destroyed small mammal habitat, that they are creating hunting grounds for feral foxes and cats, as well as opportunities for other pests such as pig and deer to become established. The fire will open up areas for weeds to colonise, and for the plant pathogen phytophthora to spread to and infect new areas.
We need to act to minimise the establishment of new pest plants and animals and to help the wildlife who survived the fire have the best chance of surviving through this now critical period and longer-term.
The response needs to be rapid, but the recovery will take another decade at least.
Fire is an integral part of this landscape, but our research has been focused on how we can ensure this amazing place is resilient to threats such as climate change and more intense bushfires.
And now that time has come.
The lessons we learn from how the landscape responded to this fire can be taken and applied elsewhere, ensuring we continue to manage landscapes for resilience into the future.
Your support today will help heal the heathlands. Donations to the Otways Bushfire Wildlife and Habitat Recovery Fund will support urgent action to protect surviving wildlife and the long-term recovery of the Carlisle Heathlands and surrounding habitats.
The CEC is an ACNC-registered charity and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
We are establishing the Otways Bushfire Wildlife and Habitat Recovery Fund to get our teams on the ground the moment it is safe to do so.
Your donation will directly fund our research on the ground in these landscapes to ensure recovery efforts are informed by long-term science, which may include:
Provision of habitat pod structures to provide refuge for small mammals.
Informing immediate predator control to protect surviving wildlife.
Installation of remote monitoring cameras so we can assess impacts on small mammal populations, monitor their responses and keep an eye out for predators.
Habitat restoration to prevent permanent loss of unique flora and rehabilitate critical small mammal habitat.
Vital research to build and share knowledge of how to effectively protect and restore these precious heathlands.
Long-term planning and advocacy to support ongoing recovery and ensure we are ready to respond to future events.
We need your help to support and nurture this remarkable place when it’s at its most vulnerable.
The CEC is an ACNC-registered charity and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
