Australia is a living frontier where new species are being discovered all the time. In 1994, walkers in Wollemi National Park, near Sydney, stumbled upon the Wollemi Pine, a 'living fossil' thought to have become extinct millions of years ago. In 1996, divers searching a remote river in north-west Queensland found the gulf snapping turtle, a species believed to have died out up to 50,000 years ago. A staggering 850,000 of Australia's species are yet to be discovered or classified by science. We depend on Australia's plants, animals, microbes and ecosystems to help produce clean water, fresh air, fertile soil, absorb pollution and pollinate plants.
Many Australian ecosystems are under threat.
Thousands of our species are in danger. On current trends, half of Australia's land-based birds are predicted to become extinct by 2100 unless major efforts are quickly put in place to protect and restore their habitat, while 11 frogs have declined or disappeared since 1985 from Queensland's central coast, Cape York and Wet Tropics regions. The major cause of biodiversity loss is destruction of habitat, mostly through land clearing for agriculture and urban development. It continues at an alarming rate. Between 1990 and 1995, the equivalent of over 70 football fields of native bush were cleared every hour.