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Environment, news, culture from the Australian Alps

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Bogong Moth

Bogong Moths rock

Bogong Moths, Agrostis infusa, migrate over 1,000 km each year from the black soil plains of Queensland and western NSW to the Australian Alps, seeking refuge from the summer heat. Along the way, they travel by night and then in the morning, drop down to the ground to rest in the shade during the day

In September, there has been a huge number of sightings, with millions of moths on the move due to good spring rainfalls. Populations have dropped in recent years and are hopefully on the rebound. One media report suggests that there are currently 4 billion moths on the move at present. Dr Marissa Parrott, a reproductive biologist at Zoos Victoria said that sightings of the endangered moth had increased over the last two years, but “this year has blown them out of the water. “In September alone … we’ve had more bogong moths sightings come in than all of last year”. The moths provide vast volumes of protein that are consumed by mountain pygmy possums.

The media is full of reports about moths ‘swarming’ properties along the NSW coast. While they are heading towards the Alps, it appears that so many have turned up in eastern NSW because they have been displaced by the strong northwesterly winds that have been blowing recently.

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Mountain Icons in a time of change

The theme for this year’s Mountain Journal magazine (which is available as a pdf here) was ‘the mountains are changing, are we ready?’

In delving into the changes being driven by global heating, destructive land use practises, and more people venturing into the mountains, we profiled four of our favourite mountain Icons.

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The Bogong Moth summit

The Bogong moth (Bugung (Ngarigo), Deberra (Taungurung)) is an iconic Australian species, important to First Nations Peoples, critical to ecosystems along its migratory path and the Australian alps, and threatened with extinction. To secure the Bogong moth we need to understand its distribution and migratory flyways which is a major challenge because their distribution records span the full breadth of Australia, everywhere south of 25° latitude.

A Bogong Moth Summit is being organised and will be held in Canberra  over February 28 – 29. The summit’s primary aims are to inspire people to get involved in Bogong moth conservation and highlight their cultural and ecological importance.

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‘A brief story of a remarkable Historical gathering’

Mountain Journal has published a number of stories in recent years about the fact that Jaithmathang Original Country elders are returning to the mountains to reconnect with their Yerto (meaning land/country high up).

As Jaithmathang Senior Elder, Loreman and Songman, Goengalla Jumma Myermyal Minjeke said in 2021, “in 1830 there was a population of more than 600 Jaithmathang Original People living in our isolated pristine Yerto Alpines, in our Mountain Ranges and on our fertile High Plains Country”. 

“By the early 1850s our population was decimated and there were only a handful of our people left; there was the arrival and occupation by pastoralists and miners, and then the numerous massacres and killings. The last few Jaithmathang who were left were removed away from our Country to other surrounding settlements”.

Now reconnection is happening. This story comes from Karina Miotto and Goengallayin Jumma Jumma.

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Jaithmathang Senior Elders reconnect with their original Country

Jaithmathang Original Country elders are returning to the mountains to reconnect with their Yerto (meaning land/country high up). This story was produced by North East Catchment Management Authority and reproduced with their permission.

Jaithmathang Senior Elder, Loreman and Songman, Goengalla Jumma Myermyal Minjeke looks out over Yerto (meaning land/country high up) while standing on Mt Loch and reflects on a separation from Jaithmathang Original Country that has lasted generations. Mt Loch is within Shared Yerto of the GunaiKurnai and Jaithmathang Original Peoples’ Country. 

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Good news for the Mountain Pygmy Possum

The mountain pygmy possum (MPP) is a small animal of The Australian high country. Since, 2008, it has been declared by the IUCN Redlist as Critically endangered. Population estimates totalled less than 2000 individuals from the three combined isolated populations in 2000.

They are reliant on Bogong Moths to build up reserves for winter and for successful breeding. The lack of moths has had a significant impact on breeding in recent summers. But there is some good news from the 2020/21 summer.

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Traditional names for ‘Australian’ mountains

I am keenly aware that no Aboriginal group or nation ever ceded it’s land to the colonisers. So those of us living in Australia are all living on stolen land. There is a lot of unfinished business that needs to be resolved, starting with negotiating a meaningful treaty between First Nations and the rest of the people living on this continent.

For a long time, indigenous people and traditions were white washed out of mainstream narratives about the mountains. As traditional owner groups reassert their connection to Country, that is slowly changing, and we can see it across the Alps. The first Aboriginal person I knew who had a strong connection to the mountains was Eddie Kneebone, who I met through our campaign work in north east Victoria in the 1990s. He had an astonishing depth of knowledge. He was instrumental in the campaign to have the Niggerheads on the Bogong High Plains renamed. It got me thinking about the power of language and names.

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‘This is what climate change looks like’. Impacts on mountain environments

The Climate Council have released a report called This is What Climate Change Looks Like (available here). It has lots of good, albeit depressing, information about how climate change is already impacting on natural environments across the continent, including mountain environments.

Mountain Journal has covered these issues before – increased fire risk to Gondwanic remnant vegetation in Tasmania, threats to iconic species like the Mountain Pygmy Possum and loss of snowpack, but this is a succinct collection of stories about impacts on wild nature in Australia.

The report notes that ‘droughts, ‘dry’ lightning strikes and heatwaves are transforming many Australian forests’ including the alpine ash and snowgum forests that we know and love.

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Zoos Victoria launches campaign to help the Mountain Pygmy Possum

Each spring, Mountain Pygmy-possums wake up from their annual hibernation, hungry for nutritious Bogong Moths to eat so they can raise their young.

Bogong Moths normally migrate from Queensland, NSW and western Victoria towards Mountain Pygmy-possum habitats in the mountains. But for the past two years they haven’t arrived, which is putting extra pressure on the endangered possum.

Scientists believe the “astonishing” drop in Bogong Moth numbers is linked to climate change and recent droughts in areas where the moths breed.

Zoos Victoria notes that as well as other threats, such as drought and pesticide use, ‘bright lights from towns and cities are thought to lure and trap the moths along their migration route’.

With the crash in Bogong Moth numbers, Zoos Victoria has launched a program to help the general community to help the moths – and hence the Mountain Pygmy Possum.

Continue reading “Zoos Victoria launches campaign to help the Mountain Pygmy Possum” →

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