LEFT Plants need protection Grazing animals such as horses, sheep and to some extent cattle, can quickly destroy vegetation in this quite fragile environment with its harsh climate of heavy frosts and sometimes long dry spells. Horses eat the local wattles and can damage the bark on eucalypts. Feral animals such as rabbits are very damaging to native plants. In dry times especially they will expose the roots of seedlings and then eat the roots. Seedlings of the local pine, Callitris endlicheri , are especially vulnerable.
Rabbit warrens can start erosion.
It is essential when planting Australian plants to fence them off from the rabbits and other animals. Tree guards when sturdily made work well but may have to be left around plants for many years as growth is often slow in the difficult conditions. Kangaroos often knock plants over and may eat certain species, although they are mainly grass eaters. Swamp wallabies often make pruning unnecessary as they eat the new shoots of Australian plants. Sometimes they can prune so heavily that plants such as the local Dodonea viscosa can be bonsai'ed.