Please watch this short video from our outgoing National Campaigns Director Amelia Young about how your support is helping protect threatened species, forests and oceans.

The Wilderness Society, represented by Environmental Justice Australia, succeeded in our landmark legal case that will deliver stronger protections for threatened wildlife on the brink of extinction.  

This is only possible because of you. Backed by you, the Wilderness Society took bold legal action in March to fight for threatened species and challenge the Minister’s failure to make recovery plans that protect Australia’s unique wildlife.

In Federal Court proceedings, the Environment Minister conceded that he had failed to make mandatory recovery plans for key species and agreed to court orders to fix the breach. Thank you.

Our court case covered 11 species, but it has implications for hundreds more.

Every native species has a name, a story, a home, and deserves more than to become a forgotten file on a minister’s desk. And thanks to you, this strong settlement proves that we can push the government to act.

With your support, when we launched the court case in March this year and saw a torrent of media coverage, we put the Wilderness Society and our priorities on the agenda. The case has helped illustrate that nature doesn’t only need a legislative fix: it needs a parliament, government and Environment Minister who actually listen to the public’s deep concern for nature, and then act to prioritise nature.

Together we have exposed the troubling reality that government after government have failed to do their job for threatened species. And WON. 

Here are the 11 species you helped fight for:

Because of this case:

• ✅ It is now publicly known that the government must treat existing recovery plans as ongoing, not expired.
• ✅ Hundreds of threatened species have a guarantee for protection that the government were quietly neglecting.
• ✅ We’ve paved the way for more accountability: when the law says “must”, we can issue legal actions to show the government that doesn’t mean “maybe”.

This win proves what’s possible when we refuse to let extinction be a footnote.

In the wake of this outcome, the government has now released draft recovery plans for the greater glider, Australian lungfish, sandhill dunnart and many other species. Carmel from Day of the Species says “Our nature laws are now stronger. Hundreds of species and many ecosystems are now safer”.

With this success, you have helped to pave the way for future action—to continue to protect threatened species, cultural heritage and large intact functioning ecosystems.

Thank you. This outcome is a testament to what happens when together, we fight back.
 

In the last few months, we’ve achieved powerful wins for forests across the country—and it’s people like you who made it all possible.

1. NSW’s Great Koala National Park will be delivered!

NSW Premier Chris Minns delivered on his election promise and committed to protecting 176,000 hectares of critical koala habitat on the mid-north coast of NSW in a new national park. 

This is one of the biggest conservation wins for NSW forests in decades!

This is monumental news, as logging in these forests on the traditional lands of the Gumbaynggirr and Dunghutti peoples will stop immediately.

The national park will be among the biggest in NSW at 476,000 hectares in total, helping to protect koalas, greater gliders and 100 other threatened species.

2. We won a landmark legal case against Forestry Tasmania!

In a landmark first, the Supreme Court of Tasmania has permanently stopped Forestry Tasmania (trading as Sustainable Timber Tasmania) from logging in a coupe on Mt Tongatabu in the state’s south-east. This is the first time in Tasmania that a permanent injunction has been granted to stop logging on public land.

Mt Tongatabu is a place of towering old-growth trees, fern-lined creeks and rich understorey, supporting threatened wildlife including Tasmanian devils, masked owls, wedge-tailed eagles and the endangered swift parrot. It also contains sites of deep cultural significance and is a place the local community values for its peace, beauty and restorative power.

The Wilderness Society worked with locals and neighbours to bring the case three years ago, securing a series of temporary injunctions to halt the logging until the permanent injunction was granted.

3. 39,000ha of Lutruwita / Tasmania’s forests off the chopping block

In recent years, the Wilderness Society Tasmania has led the campaign to protect 39,000 hectares of native forests threatened with immediate release for expanded logging. The industry was paid over $121 million to have these areas protected, yet the Liberals have been secretly working to hand them over to the logging industry.

But backed by you in August, the Liberals reversed their plans and took the 39,000 hectares of forests off the chopping block. Thousands of Wilderness Society supporters demonstrated the overwhelming public support to protect these forests for their biodiversity, cultural significance and climate benefits.

4. We’re pushing big supermarkets to act on deforestation

Coles has committed to going deforestation-free across its own-brand groceries by the end of 2025! This is a huge win driven by years of public pressure and people power.

But just a day later, Woolworths quietly weakened its no-deforestation pledge, with no clear plan to tackle deforestation for beef or timber. Together with ethical trading platform SIX, we’re using shareholder power to push Woolworths to take genuine action to protect forests.*

5. Victoria is getting three new national parks!

The Allan government announced the creation of Victoria's most significant new national parks in over 15 years: Wombat-Lerderderg, Mount Buangor, and the Pyrenees National Parks, alongside some new conservation reserves across the central west forests, the Strathbogies and Mirboo North in the east.

The Wilderness Society celebrates this milestone, recognising it as a landmark step forward for climate resilience, the health and wellbeing of all Victorians, and biodiversity—including rare and threatened species like the brush-tailed phascogale, greater glider, Australian grayling, and powerful owl.

6. The next big win? It’s already in the making, thanks to you.

With your help, we’ll keep up the pressure on politicians and corporations to protect Australia’s magnificent forests and all the life they hold—for a healthy future, where people and wildlife thrive.

*This information is not investment or financial product advice. The Wilderness Society is providing factual information only and does not make any recommendations regarding any investment, including any investment in Woolworths shares. All decisions made by shareholders are at their own risk. Consumers should make their own assessment, and consider obtaining independent advice, before making any financial or investment decisions.

It’s nearly here: the Wilderness Society’s annual, all-ages program of nature-themed storytelling events—aka Nature Book Week—takes place 11–19 October 2025!

At the Wilderness Society, we believe stories can spark wonder and curiosity about the world around us, and help people connect with places that need our protection. That’s why, for the past 31 years, the Wilderness Society's Environment Award for Children’s Literature has recognised books that grow a love of nature in young people.

This year, selected prints from our 2025 Karajia and Environment Awards for Children's Literature shortlists are available for sale, to raise vital funds for our work to protect nature. Peruse the catalogue of beautiful prints here, and bid for your favourites!

There’s plenty more happening across the country—from nature storytimes in local libraries to storytelling bushwalks—or you could download our free printable activities and resources and hold your own event! 

However you choose to celebrate Nature Book Week, we hope you’re able to strengthen your connection with the natural world through the power and beauty of stories—written, illustrated, spoken and sung. 

Australia’s oceans are vast, wild, and teeming with life—from migrating whales to ancient coral reefs. They sustain our climate, our coastal communities, and some of the most unique marine ecosystems on Earth.

Tragically, from algal blooms to oil spills, our oceans are also under assault. For over 60 years, fossil fuel companies have exploited Australia’s resources, making vast profits while polluting our planet and filling our oceans with toxic, obsolete infrastructure.

The rusting platforms, pipelines, and wells contain hazardous materials like heavy metals, radioactive substances, and plastics, which can leach into the water and poison the food chain. Australia faces a growing litany of environmental disasters from degrading infrastructure that should have been cleaned up including oil spills and methane leaks. The oil and gas industry’s toxic legacy is a grave threat to our magnificent marine life.

With your help, we’re going to court over Santos’ mess

On behalf of our supporters, the Wilderness Society has launched a ground-breaking legal case. We’re taking Australia’s national offshore oil and gas regulator, NOPSEMA, to court over what we believe is a failure to ensure oil and gas giant Santos has financial means to decommission its obsolete Reindeer gas field off the coast of Western Australia. 

It’s part of our determined stand to protect Australia’s oceans from a polluting industry that wants to cut and run—leaving Australians and our marine life with a toxic legacy and a multi-billion dollar cleanup bill. The estimated cost to decommission oil and gas industry infrastructure in Australian waters alone is a staggering $60 billion over the coming decades.

The companies that profit from putting the fossil fuel infrastructure into Australian oceans are the ones that must clean it up. 

Learn more about our decommissioning work, and how you can help the Wilderness Society protect Australia’s oceans for the future. 

Our long-running campaign for federal nature laws that actually work has again been in the headlines, with Environment Minister Murray Watt promising reforms will be introduced to parliament before Christmas. Thanks to your generous support, we have been on the frontline of a grassroots push to keep the Minister focused on what nature actually needs. 

Supporters and volunteers have rallied behind an ask for members of parliament: a Pledge to Prioritise Nature. And the pledge is helping to reveal who is and isn’t on nature’s side. 

The same community members who have pushed their local MPs to prioritise nature also made a wave of public mobilisations across the continent in July and August focusing on the need to stop deforestation and protect threatened species. From dozens to hundreds of constituents amassed for each mobilisation, including trivia nights in Launceston and Sydney, town halls in WA, and even a mini festival in Brisbane accompanied by music and deforestation-free sausages. This show of power reiterated the public’s demand for politicians to prioritise nature, as well as pushing for specific reforms to federal nature laws that will help to stop deforestation, end extinctions and ensure a fair say for the public. 

On the back of these public mobilisations, Wilderness Society campaigners headed to Canberra to trawl the halls of parliament, speaking with representatives from major and minor parties and independents. We reiterated the community's calls, connected their public pressure to the law reforms that nature needs, and were able to secure significant commitments from MPs to act both quietly and loudly to put forests, extinctions and transparency and accountability on the reform agenda. 

The Albanese government won’t act to prioritise nature without a strong public showing. And together, backed by you, we are speaking up for forests and threatened species, while holding the government to account for its promises and legal duties. This is how we’ve won in the past, and how we will fight for nature now. Another wave of public action is planned for October to remind the Albanese government that species extinction is not an option—protecting Australia’s iconic wildlife and plants is literally the government’s job. 

Because of this work, Parliamentarians have been speaking out about nature. Head over to Instagram to watch. 

A record-breaking response to protect WA’s Northern Jarrah Forest

Thanks to you, a powerful message just shook the WA Environmental Protection Authority.

A record-breaking 59,000 public submissions were made during the recent 12-week comment period on Alcoa’s bauxite mining proposals. That’s the most ever in WA history.

Together with our End Forest Mining Alliance partners, we contributed to around 90% of all submissions. That includes more than 15,800 of you backing the Wilderness Society’s detailed, evidence-based response.

This is the first time in over 60 years of Alcoa strip-mining the Northern Jarrah Forest that the public got a say. And you made sure it was heard loud and clear.

Alcoa caught out for greenwashing

Australia’s advertising watchdog, Ad Standards Australia, has ruled that US mining giant Alcoa misled the public with false claims about “rehabilitation” in WA’s Northern Jarrah Forest.

The truth is clear: strip mining removes the very foundations of this ancient ecosystem. No amount of rehabilitation can restore the complex forest that has evolved over millennia.

Thanks to your donations, we made sure the truth was seen. In response, we funded a full-page ad in The West Australian—cutting through the spin with facts the public deserves to know.

Bring Australia’s breathtaking natural wonders into your every day

Pre-orders are now open for the Wilderness Society’s 2026 calendar and diary. 

From misty peaks and ancient forests to desert blooms and rare wildlife—each month takes you deeper into the spectacular nature you help protect.

Packed with breathtaking images of Australia’s iconic and unusual places and species, they’re perfect for your wall, your desk, or as thoughtful gifts for fellow nature lovers.

Stock is limited and available by pre-order. Get in early before they’re gone!