Regrowth: Checking in on Wildlife Recovery Following the 2019/20 NSW Bushfires

The first time Amanda Fry went into the Kangaroo Valley bushfire zone in the NSW Southern Highlands, she cried.

The thing that struck her most was the silence. There were no insects, no birds, no other animals—just soot.

But more than 18 months on since the devastating summer bushfires of 2019/20, green shoots now cover the blackened trunks of the eucalyptus trees, and there are promising signs when it comes to wildlife.

The founder of Experience Nature, Amanda found herself in a place to share her passion for the bushfire recovery and regeneration effort through a new tour called “Travel in Purpose.” The tour places a strong emphasis on flora and fauna, taking visitors on hikes throughout the affected area.

Some positive signals they’re seeing? Amanda notes that two rock wallaby populations, thought to have been lost in the fires, actually survived. Plus, given that fewer people were driving in the area during the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer animals searching for food ended up as roadkill. Donations of fruit and vegetables for wildlife came flooding in after the fires as well, further helping these populations survive.

Amanda believes one of the best ways to see the impact of the fires is on a canoe tour, which can be incorporated into the “Travel in Purpose” itinerary.

“When you see a 20-kilometre ridge on top of a hill that’s still black because those trees haven’t regenerated, you understand the size of this,” she said.

Jenny Robb, from Kiah Wilderness Camp, has seen her own property turn the corner with signs of growth since the fires that badly burned the region just south of Eden on the NSW South Coast. She and her husband Arthur offer kayaking tours from their 65 acres on the Towamba River. From the water, they point out where the hottest part of the fire was.

“It’s quite a contrast,” Jenny said. “It’s so green down near the river now, partly because of floods that followed the bushfires.”

She notes that ash works as a fertilizer. “Nearly all of our gardens are looking magnificent.”

Campers can also book a spot to pitch a tent on the property via Hipcamp to witness the wildlife rebounding firsthand.

“We’re still getting wombats at night and all the birds seem to be back,” Jenny says. “We haven’t seen as many wallabies as we usually do, but besides that, things are getting back as good as they ever were.”

In the Blue Mountains, Boutique Tours Australia senior guide Steve Thomas has been blown away by the regeneration he has seen.

“One of the things I was quite happy about was how stunned Australians were by the regrowth that’s been happening,” he said.

He’s especially seeing this around the Grose Valley near Anvil Rock Lookout at Blackheath.

“There’s hundreds and hundreds of xanthorrhoea, the grass tree. Like a lot of our native species, they react in a positive way to fire—it’s the only thing that triggers their flower.”

He also shows visitors the banksia serrata (old man banksia). He’s found many parent trees that were wiped out. But in many cases, it’s now possible to take a look around on the ground nearby and spot a dozen or more little banksias growing from where the seeds fell into the ashes.

“Plus, as you’re driving along, you can see some of the trees look like they’re wearing little green fairy sweaters,” he says. “This is because when eucalypt trees go through recovery mode, they shoot out leaves.”

While many Australian native species require fire and sometimes thrive in the aftermath, the problem with the 2019/20 fires was the severity. They covered such a huge area and burned for so long that it caused much more widespread damage than is typical. This heavily affected the area wildlife—mostly notably, the koalas.

“Kangaroos and wallabies will get out of the way, while wombats and echidnas will go into their burrows and for the most part avoid the fires,” Steve said. “Koalas, unfortunately, have nowhere to go. Their reaction is to go up the tree, and that’s the worst place to be when there’s a big fire.”

The World Wildlife Fund-Australia estimates that nearly 8,000 koalas—which were already in rapid decline—perished in the NSW fires.

Port Macquarie Koala Hospital President Sue Ashton knows more than most just how badly impacted they were. During the fires, the mid-north coast hospital received 79 koalas from all over the state, including areas such as Taree, the Blue Mountains, and the Hawkesbury. Of those, 53 had suffered burns. The good news: All but one have since been treated, rehabilitated, and released back into their respective regions.

One hospital guest, a little koala named Baz, unfortunately lost his claws in the fires.

“He grew back little stubs, but he can’t grab to pull himself up a tree,” Sue said.

Visitors to the hospital can see Baz and a handful of other koalas who live there full-time. The hospital is open to visitors to educate people about how they can help protect these creatures.

Whilst it was initially thought that koalas were recovering well in the wild post-fires, Sue is now concerned that the low number of recent admissions indicates this isn’t the case. Given that koalas only breed once a year, it will take a long time for numbers to increase.

Despite the widespread devastation caused—and the yet-to-be-determined effects that we’ll see in wildlife populations and biodiversity in the future, it’s undeniable that some positives have been unearthed since the bushfires.

“There’s no question that it’s increased global awareness and education about how important it is that we look after our native species,” Amanda says.