What a year it has been. Come and join us to find out more about what Shoalhaven Landcare has been up to in 2025 at our Annual General Meeting.

Following our AGM we have a very special guest speaker Nicholas Carlile, coming to share his experiences on "The Science underpinning Australia's most ambitious rodent eradication: Lord Howe Island"

In 2019, the removal of rodents from the iconic Lord Howe Island was the single, most significant action for conservation management of threatened species in Australia's history. Home to more than 100 endemic plants, countless endemic invertebrates and a range of threatened vertebrates, the island group has recorded more extinctions than any other one location in the country. The process of removing rodents here, developed through more than 300 successful island eradications elsewhere, was underpinned by significant scientific research, commencing 14 years earlier. Nothing happened by accident, but there were plenty of surprises along the way. This talk follows that scientific journey to the point of dropping 59 tons of cereal bait on this World Heritage site, the journey of that poison through the natural systems, and what fate the native species subsequently faced in the following five years.

Nicholas Carlile has been carrying out ecological research in New South Wales for more than 30 years. His work focus is mainly on island biodiversity restorations of flora and fauna and surveys for vertebrates and invertebrates. Research into seabirds and their translocation has taken him to New Caledonia, Fiji, Hawaii, Bermuda and South Africa. A focus between 2005 and 2024 has been the planning and completion of the rodent eradication on Lord Howe Island where his team were responsible for the protection of native fauna during the 2019 poison baiting. His contribution to this complex and multifaceted program was acknowledged with the NSW Premier’s award for Science & Engineering in 2021. He lives with his partner and their three children on a remote forest property at Bugong, just south of Kangaroo Valley. Here he indulges his love of the bush through weed management, has a passion for wine making and spends too little time on a vintage motorcycle restoration.

Hang about after Nicholas's talk for light refreshments.