AFTER thirty years of volunteering Beth Williams is still swinging for Armidale’s flora and fauna.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Since arriving in Armidale all those years ago, Ms Williams has been involved in the regions conservation.
“I’ve always been interested in the environment, I have a bachelor in science and botany,” she said.
Ms Williams taught with her husband at the University of New England, she also became involved in work involving the regent honeyeater.
It is a colourful bird which is considered extremely endangered.
And while her work over the past 30 years towards the birds preservation is vast and well respected, Ms Williams doesn’t have time for that, her main concern is still the honeyeater.
“Over the last three years we haven’t recorded any breeding in this area,” she said.
Ms Williams is making a call to protect the vital traveling stock reserves and routes, large tracks of crown land that many people don’t know exist.
“They were used to transport stock before trucks and are still used for extra grazing and large herd movement from Queensland,” she said.
“The reserves are only grazed intermittently and still have vital native vegetation for all the local fauna.”
Recently commercial tenders have been released to use the reserves for grazing, Ms Williams is concerned that those using the reserves will not treat them sustainably and destroy the last remaining habitat for the regent honeyeater.