The remnants of Newcastle's industrial past have given way to one of the country's most successful native fauna rehabilitation projects on Kooragang Island.
A small army of community volunteers guided by University of Newcastle researchers and National Parks and Wildlife staff have helped restore the habitat of the green and golden bell frog on a 1500 metre stretch of the island.
The endangered amphibians were once plentiful in the area before it was industrialised during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The species' revival is today the focus of a Save Our Species project to recreate a section of the frogs' native habitat.
The first stage of the project was to devise a way to make plants survive on chitter, a byproduct of the steelmaking process.
"We devised a unique way to plant the native vegetation, the sedges and shrubs for bell frog habitat," NPWS bush regeneration and volunteering officer Boyd Carney said.
"The soil was so hard we needed a machine to bore holes into the chitter and then we lined the hole with cardboard, filled it with soil and fertiliser and then put plants and mulch on the top of it. After three years the plants are thriving and providing excellent bell frog habitat."
The challenges brought by drought and deliberately lit fires have been offset by good rainfall over the past year. As a result the area's frog population is booming.
"Frogs in this area were greatly affected by low rainfall, so the idea was to enhance their habitat through plantings and weed removal and make it easier for them to move across the landscape and access the available wetland habitat across the island," Mr Carney said.
"Luckily, we did get some rain, and this has greatly benefited the frog populations and improved the odds of survival."
He acknowledged the work of volunteers without whom the project would not have been possible.
Volunteers play a major part in threatened species conservation, not only with their contributions to on-ground work, but also in other ways.
Boyd Carney
"Volunteers play a major part in threatened species conservation, not only with their contributions to on-ground work, but also in other ways, such as reporting sightings of threatened species which help researchers track what is happening. They bring so much energy and passion to their work, and their efforts are much appreciated."
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