The Wilderness Society has launched court action against Australia’s Environment Minister, saying successive environment ministers have failed in their legal duties to create recovery plans that would give threatened wildlife a better chance at surviving extinction.
Our clients, The Wilderness Society, will allege in the Federal Court through lawyers from Environmental Justice Australia, that Australia’s environment minister has not complied with the legal duty to make recovery plans for threatened species. In this ‘neglected nature’ case our client says this failure is unlawful.
Under Australia’s environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act), the federal environment minister has a legal duty to make recovery plans for animals and plants in danger of extinction. These plans are like rescue roadmaps that lay out the steps needed to support species to recover and thrive in the wild. They also identify critical habitat, outline key threats and guide government decisions – including project approvals.
The Wilderness Society considers that successive Australian environment ministers have not met their legal duty to make plans for hundreds of threatened species that are in desperate need of protection.
Amelia Young, National Campaigns Director for the Wilderness Society, says:
“For decades, government after government has failed to make recovery plans for hundreds of threatened species that are in dire need of better care.
“We’re going to court because Australia's pride and joy — its diverse and world-important environment — is being trashed. This case will shine a light on the legal and moral duties of current and future environment ministers to do their job to help Aussie wildlife beat extinction.
Ellen Maybery, senior specialist lawyer at Environmental Justice Australia, says:
“Australia’s environment laws are clear: when animals, plants and ecosystems are at risk of extinction and need a recovery plan, the environment minister must act and create one.
“Our client hopes this case will set a precedent that compels all future environment ministers to create recovery plans and pull these unique species back from the brink of extinction.”
Recovery plans
Once the minister has decided a species requires a recovery plan, the EPBC Act states a plan must ordinarily be made within three years. An Auditor General report in 2022 found that since 2013, only two per cent of recovery plans were completed within the statutory time frame.
The Wilderness Society is asking the Court to compel the environment minister to make sure that the following species have current recovery plans: Australian grayling, Australian lungfish, Baudin's cockatoo, Carnaby's black cockatoo, forest red-tailed black cockatoo, ghost bat, greater glider (southern and central), red goshawk, sandhill dunnart, and Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle. (Please see wildlife summaries below).
The court case was filed on Monday 3 March.
The EPBC Act has recently been the subject of political and media focus following the controversial withdrawal of the Albanese government’s Nature Positive bills in February 2025, which would have amended Australia’s environment laws.
FOR MEDIA USE: Please find PHOTOGRAPHS of species and key spokespeople here.
Media interviews
For interviews with Ellen Maybery, Environmental Justice Australia senior specialist lawyer, please contact Miki Perkins at [email protected] or 03 8341 3110
For interviews with Amelia Young, National Campaigns Director at the Wilderness Society, please contact Rhiannon Cunningham on [email protected] or 0419 992 760
More information on the threatened species and missing Recovery Plans in this court case:
Greater gliders silently glide across treetops, making their nests up to 20 tree hollows at a time.
Greater gliders are Australia's largest gliding mammal. They can glide up to 100 metres between treetops, using their furry gliding membranes and big fluffy tails to steer.
They can only survive in healthy forests with big old trees, yet their habitat's been decimated by deforestation and fire, leaving them on the brink of extinction.
Southern and central greater gliders were listed as Vulnerable under the EPBC Act in 2016 and Endangered in 2022 – yet destruction of their habitat continues today.
Greater glider populations plummeted by at least 50 percent between 2000-2022.
The Environment Minister decided greater gliders required a Recovery Plan in 2016.
Today – still no recovery plan.
Found in arid sand dunes of South Australia and Western Australia, these carnivorous marsupials need intact spinifex habitat to survive.
Dunnarts sleep by day in sandy burrows, then forage all night long for insects and reptiles.
Protecting remnant sandplain ecosystems from land clearing, including the north of the Nullarbor Plain, is crucial for their survival.
Sandhill dunnarts were officially listed as Endangered in 2000 under the EPBC Act (they were also listed under the preceding Act).
In 2009, the Environment Minister decided sandhill dunnarts needed a Recovery Plan.
Today – still no recovery plan.
Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles are Australia’s largest bird of prey.
They soar on wings up to 2.3 metres wide, playing a vital role maintaining the ecological integrity of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
But logging in Lutruwita's spectacular forests and attempts to establish tourism operations within the World Heritage Area pose a significant risk to this severely endangered bird.
There's currently less than 1,000 estimated to remain in the wild.
These top-order predators were listed as Endangered 25 years ago in 2000.
The Environment Minister decided the species needs a Recovery Plan in 2007 and a plan was made that same year, but it was meant to expire in 2017. The government attempted to expand the expiration to April 2024.
Today – no current recovery plan.
Lungfish are living fossils of immense scientific importance from Queensland’s Mary and Burnett Rivers.
Lungfish have a single lung and the unique ability to breathe air when there’s no water, or through their five pairs of gills.
They grow very slowly and live for decades, with one estimated to have lived to 109 years old.
They have poor eyesight and can use electroreception (ability to sense electric fields) to locate hidden prey like frogs, earthworms, small fish, shrimp and snails.
This ancient species relies on slow-moving waters with abundant aquatic plants.
Protecting river flows and preventing habitat destruction are critical for its survival.
But habitat destruction and drying rivers are leaving lungfish in peril, and they were listed as Vulnerable back in 2003.
The Environment Minister decided Australian lungfish required a Recovery Plan in 2009.
Today – still no recovery plan.
Ghost bats are Australia’s largest microbat and the only carnivorous bats, living in caves and abandoned mines where they devour their prey whole – feathers, bones and teeth.
They once lived in permanent roosts across Australia, but now, there are only a few isolated, scattered colonies left in the Top End.
Helping them means protecting precious bushland and savanna threatened by deforestation in Northern Australia.
Ghost bats were listed as Vulnerable in 2016 and the Environment Minister decided the species requires a Recovery Plan that same year.
Today – still no recovery plan.
These incredible cockatoos used to live in flocks of thousands but now there are so few, they are listed as endangered.
Carnaby’s black cockatoos live in native woodlands in WA, migrating back and forth from the Swan Coastal Plain where they feed in summer, to the Wheatbelt where they breed in winter.
But much of this bushland, one full of tree hollows, has been cleared for wheat.
They live as monogamous pairs, returning to the same tree hollow each year to breed. But most of the remaining population are beyond breeding age and there may be very few younger birds to take their place.
Their population declined by more than 50% over the 58 years to 1998.
Carnaby’s black cockatoos were listed as endangered way back in 2000.
The Environment Minister decided they needed a Recovery Plan in 2009 – and a plan was eventually made in 2014. But this plan expired in April 2024.
Today – no current recovery plan.
Endemic to the dense forests of Victoria and New South Wales, these shy, truffle-eating marsupial depend on undisturbed undergrowth.
Stopping logging is essential to their survival.
It’s estimated long-footed potoroos lost 80% of their known habitat in the black summer bushfires and today, these rare marsupials are only found in three places in the world.
The Long-footed potoroo’s population declined at least 50% over the 21 years up to 2021.
These shy marsupials were listed as Endangered under the EPBC Act in 2000 (they were already listed under the preceding Act).
They had a recovery plan made in 2001, and the Minister confirmed the species indeed needed a recovery plan in 2007. However when this recovery plan was meant to expire in 2017. The government attempted to expand the expiration to 2022 and then once again to April 2024.
However this recovery plan has not been updated and has now expired
Today – no current recovery plan.
These curious freshwater fish, found in coastal rivers from NSW, SA and Victoria to Tasmania, need free-flowing streams for migration and spawning.
These medium-sized fish are also known as the Cucumber Mullet due to their cucumber smell when freshly caught.
Adult Australian graylings spawn in lower freshwater reaches of water systems. Their larvae then drift downstream to the sea, and juveniles migrate back upstream into freshwater.
Restoring river connectivity and maintaining water quality are vital for their future.
Freshwater graylings were listed as Vulnerable in 2000 (and had also been listed under the previous legislation).
The Environment Minister decided they need a recovery plan in 2009. Their plan was meant to expire in 2018, but the government attempted to expand the expiration to 2022, and once again to 1 April 2024.
Today – no current Recovery Plan.
Red goshawks, affectionately called The Red, are believed to be Australia’s rarest bird of prey.
These almighty raptors have huge yellow feet and powerful talons. They are evolutionary oddities, with no near relatives in Australia.
Once widespread across northern Australia, these powerful raptors now rely on intact woodlands and riparian forests to survive.
There are currently estimated to be less than 1,400 mature red goshawks in the wild, and their population is declining.
Red goshawks have been listed as Endangered – and the last remaining mature birds live in a single population, which faces ongoing threats.
Preventing deforestation, much of which is agriculture driven, and safeguarding breeding sites are key to its recovery.
Red goshawks were listed as Vulnerable in 1999 and Endangered in 2023.
The Environment Minister decided they needed a Recovery Plan in 2012, but this plan was meant to expire in 2022. The government attempted to expand the expiration to April 2024.
Today – no current recovery plan.
Forest red-tailed black cockatoos are endemic to forests in the south west of WA, from Albany to Perth.
They make a short call that sounds like their Noongar name ‘karak’.
They’re monogamous, live in small family groupings and breed in tree hollows. Females only have one chick at a time, sometimes breeding only once every two to three years.
The population has declined by an estimated 30% since they were listed as in danger of extinction.
They were listed as Vulnerable in 2009. A recovery plan was made in 2011, but it expired in 2021.
Today – no current recovery plan.
Baudin’s black cockatoos are on the brink of extinction.
Also known as the long-billed black cockatoo, these social birds have white patches on their cheeks and make a loud, whistling ‘weeoo wee-oo’ call.
This species needs mature trees for nesting, but rapid land clearing has left them without breeding hollows or food trees.
The population of Baudin’s cockatoos have plummeted by more than 50 percent over three generations since the 1960s.
They were listed as endangered in 2018. The Environment Minister decided they needed a recovery plan in 2009, and a plan was made in 2011. But this expired in 2021
Today – no current recovery plan.
