Opportunity to find out who is living on your land

Rural landholders in the Taralga region are being offered the opportunity to find out more about which native and pest animals are living on their property. The “Who’s living on my land?” program, run by the National Parks Association of NSW, turns private landholders into citizen scientists by teaching them how to use state of the art cameras to discover the wildlife on their property.

After training at a free “Who’s living on my land?” workshop at Taralga’s Masonic Hall, landholders are able to borrow an infrared motion detector camera to monitor their land for two weeks to detect mammals and birds, both by day and night.

“Once the camera is mailed back to us, all the images will be thoroughly checked and species identified by our wildlife experts,” says Margot Law, NPA Project Officer. “People will end up with a great insight into what is living on their land and be better able to manage their situation.”

Margot has been delighted with the results of previous workshops, “People are always curious about what species are lurking around at night and there’s usually some surprises in store; whether it is an unexpected species or some unusual behavior. In one case, someone found out that they had goats on their property - they started pest control within 24 hours!”

The Taralga workshop will be run in conjunction with the International Volunteers for Peace camp, where people from all over the world are coming to help rehabilitate a native woodland remnant at the Taralga Stonequarry Cemetery.

Any rural landholder with property over three acres is welcome to participate in this initiative. Book early to secure your place as limited places are available.

RSVP: The free “Who’s living on my land?” workshop is on Saturday 21 February, 10-noon, Masonic

Hall, Orchard St, Taralga. RSVP by Thursday 19 February to Rita Sofea (02) 4803 5636 or

rita.sofea@gmail.com