2022-23 Annual Report to Members

2022-23 was another excellent year for the Foundation.

We continue to provide strong support for the key programs of our sister organisation, Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy – formerly called Big Scrub Landcare. As part of this support, we completed, after the year-end, the Foundation's first government grant-funded project. This $108,000 grant financed leaf sample collections and DNA sequencing of six species as part of our major contribution of more than $800,000 to the Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy's world-leading Science Saving Rainforests Program. The NSW government is contributing $820,000 to the Program and the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is providing more than $1.2m in in-kind contributions.

The Science Saving Rainforests Program has made excellent progress in collecting leaf samples. To date, leaf samples have been collected from 12,352 individual trees. Collections have been completed across the range of 23 key structural species and 9 threatened species. Good progress has also been made in leaf sample collections for the remaining seven key structural species and 21 threatened species.

DNA has been extracted and sequenced from 5,538 leaf samples collected across the range of 22 species by our contractor, Diversity Arrays Technology.

The DNA data is transmitted for genome analysis to our major partner, the Research Centre for Ecosystem Resilience, part of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. To date the genomes of 10 species have been analysed. These analyses will identify, for each tree species, up to 30 or more populations where leaf samples have been collected and which would collectively capture 90% of the genetic diversity of the species in our local region as well as targeted populations to our north where the current climate matches the 50 year forecasts for our region.

This optimal genetic diversity will be incorporated into planting stock grown from propagules collected in each of the identified populations; it will help avoid inbreeding and provide the best possible resilience to climate change and other threats such as new diseases and insect predators. The planting stock will be used in developing a living seed bank plantation of up to 30 threatened species and up to 30 key structural species that will after some years be a source of planting stock for more sustainable plantings to restore critically endangered lowland subtropical rainforest and recovery plantings of its many threatened species. The planting stock will also be used in one or more demonstration sites to illustrate this methodology.

The Foundation is also a major contributor to Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy's ongoing Remnant Care Program. This important ongoing Program rehabilitates and provides ongoing care of more than 500ha of critically endangered lowland subtropical rainforest in 42 Big Scrub remnants, including ten in National Parks and Nature Reserves plus other important remnants on public and private land. The Conservancy organises regular weed control at each remnant by professional bush regenerators, who also monitor outcomes including improvements in native rainforest vegetation and reduction in weeds. Special care is given to threatened species to facilitate their recovery.

During the past year the Foundation contributed over $200,000 to recently completed/current projects that Big Scrub Foundation and Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy have undertaken in partnership with the Saving our Species unit of the NSW Department of Planning and Environment and the NSW Environmental Trust. The Conservancy has successfully completed the first year of a three year Remnant Care Project that is being funded by a $150,000 grant from the NSW Environmental Trust.

It is encouraging that some landholders are continuing to take over the care of their remnants from us. Last year, Ballina Shire Council took over the care of four of its remnants that our sister organisation had been looking after for more than 20 years.

In 2022-23 the Conservancy also deployed considerable resources repairing the damage caused to a number of remnants by the record floods in a project funded by North Coast Local Land Services.

The Foundation has also provided support for the Conservancy's other two ongoing programs: Community Engagement and Re-establishing Rainforest.

The Conservancy’s programs that the Foundation supports will make a significant contribution to helping save from extinction our Gondwana-descended, internationally significant Critically Endangered Lowland Subtropical Rainforest and its many threatened species. The methodology of our Science Saving Rainforests Program can be applied to restore degraded rainforest and other seriously degraded forest ecosystems and recover their threatened species elsewhere in Australia and around the world. The methodology can also be applied to increase the long-term sustainability of major reforestation projects and the longevity of carbon sequestration plantings. For more information on our SSR program, please visit the Conservancy’s website.

The Foundation's financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2023 demonstrate its strong financial position, with net assets of $4.3m. Cash in the investment portfolio managed by Escala Partners currently amounts to almost $0.5m. The market value of investments is currently $268,000 above cost.

On behalf of the Directors, I thank members who have donated to the Foundation in 2022-23 and invite more members to become donors and participate in the world-leading ecological restoration projects that the Foundation plays a major role in financing. Donations can be simply made by electronic funds transfer to BSF’s donations bank account (BSB: 062 565 Account number: 1083 3458).

Tony Parkes AO, BSc (Hons), PhD

Executive Chair and Founder

Science Saving Rainforests Progress Report

The Science Saving Rainforests Program has reached an exciting milestone after serious delays to leaf sample collections caused by bushfires, Covid 19 and floods. We’re pleased to report the DNA sequencing phase of the program has begun.

Over 7,000 leaf samples have been collected from individual trees across the whole NSW and Qld range of 9 threatened and 25 key structural tree species that occur in our critically endangered lowland subtropical rainforest. The DNA of each of the 7,000 leaf samples is currently being sequenced by our contractor Diversity Arrays Technology in Canberra. The overall Program will see DNA sequencing completed for up to 11,000 individuals of 60 tree species that were confined by clearing of 94% of the rainforest into small, isolated populations that have a high risk of inbreeding.

This information will then be used by our partner the Research Centre for Ecosystem Resilience (ReCER) at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney to undertake genome analyses of each species and identify individual trees or populations that have the optimal genetic diversity for the Big Scrub. From there, cuttings, juveniles or seed of each of the identified individuals/ populations will be propagated and planted in a Macadamia-style 60 species plantation, bringing these scientifically-selected individuals together in a living seed bank to help reverse the adverse effects of inbreeding in their wild populations and plantings.

Big Scrub Foundation and NSW Department of Planning and Environment pledge support for Science Saving Rainforests

The Big Scrub Foundation is contributing $670,000 in cash to sister organisation Big Scrub Rainforest Conservancy’s world-leading Science Saving Rainforests Program. The Program is applying the latest genome science to helping save from extinction Australia’s critically endangered lowland subtropical rainforest and 30 of its threatened plant species. $500,000 of this funding contribution is sourced from Stone and Wood's $1m donation to the Foundation.

Preparations underway at the Science Saving Rainforests plantation site.

Big Scrub Foundation has for the first time in its history applied for and received a government grant. Normally funded by donations, the Foundation will use the $108,000 grant from the NSW Environmental Trust to provide additional support that will help finance the DNA sequencing of threatened plant species as part of Science Saving Rainforests Program. The NSW Government’s Saving our Species program is contributing $478,000 to Science Saving Rainforests.

Click here to read more about the Science Saving Rainforests Program.

Brookfarm’s transformation from desolate farm to towering rainforest

Original version of story published in Byron Magazine. 

In 1989, Pamela and Martin Brook purchased a run-down dairy farm in the Byron Bay hinterland to live their dream of moving to the country. Over the decades since, they tirelessly converted the desolate farm into a thriving orchard, hilltop distillery and towering rainforest – an achievement that must have been difficult to envision at the time.

The transformation began with trips up from Melbourne, where Pamela ran a dental practice and Martin worked in film and TV. During what was a period of economic downturn, the family would make a handful of trips up each year, with sons Will and Eddie put to work planting and weeding. Over a span of 30 years, the family oversaw a complete transformation of the land, planting over 4,000 macadamia trees and more than 35,000 rainforest trees and natives. 

It was the family’s belief that regenerating the native rainforest, which descends 40-million years to the rainforests of Gondwana, was of crucial importance to establishing a sustainable and responsible farming business. That mantra fuelled the development of Brookfarm, and more recently Cape Byron Distillery and We The Many. 

Images of the property in the 90s

Then and now: some eucalypts were planted but later plantings were predominantly rainforest species.

Settlers to the area weren’t always so environmentally minded, however. When Europeans began inhabiting northern NSW in the 1880s, they were issued a governing imperative to clear the land to create industry and food supply. This resulted in an ancient rainforest of over 75,000 hectares – the largest expanse of lowland subtropical rainforest in the country – being cleared to 1% of its original size. Today, this ecologically significant rainforest, which still contains the highest proportion of Gondwana-descendant species of any rainforest in Australia, exists in small remnants between Byron Bay, Ballina and Lismore.

The rainforest and restored creek bed today.

Upon learning of this decimation, the Brook family undertook planting that has regenerated an 18 hectare patch of native forest. Many of the canopy species are reaching mature size, providing habitat for up to 100 threatened species that call the Big Scrub home, as well as the 17 botanicals used in Brookies Gin. The results are testament to the Brook family’s devotion to caring for the land and building sustainable business that adds value to the community and environment. 

Many other landowners in the area are following a similar path, with hundreds involved in Big Scrub Landcare’s Rainforest Re-establishment Program. Since beginning almost 30 years ago, the program has seen around 2.5 million trees planted to create over 600ha of new rainforest, increasing the size of rainforest in the region by almost 70%. Martin Brook spent many years as vice-president of Big Scrub Landcare and continues to serve in a volunteer role on the executive committee. 

The efforts of the Brook family are a legacy with significant impact on the conservation of our precious natural environment, and an inspiration to generations to come.