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(BIRD CHIRPS)

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NARRATOR: Australia has always
been a land of extremes.

(BIRDS CHIRP)

Its unique wildlife has adapted

to the vagaries of severe weather.

For millennia, fire is a force

that has shaped the nature of
Australia.

But in 2019...

came the Black Summer.

The most savage fire season in
recorded history...

signified a new phase in the climate
crisis.

WOMAN: To see these places, one
after each other, be destroyed,

it's devastating.

What has been lost?
What is left now?

Uh, have we lost whole animal
cultures?

MAN: It's taken a lot from
Australia.

I think that's why we're seeing this
huge reaction of love for the
wildlife here.

People want to help, people want to
care.

We've gotta help them come back and
make things better for when they do
come back.

Over the course of a year
we chart the recovery...

..after the wild fires.

For three years, record-breaking
droughts

have had Australia in their grip.

Rivers have disappeared,

lakes vaporised...

..and forests turned tinder dry.

2019 is recorded as the hottest
and driest year in the history books.

Extreme fire danger is declared two
months earlier than a typical year.

MAN ON RADIO: There is a heightened
risk of a fire-generated storm.

(LIGHTNING CRACKLES)

In August, dry lightning sparks the
first fire.

(SQUAWKING)

Ancient forest, rich with
biodiversity, ignites.

These are the forest bastions

from which all of Australia's unique
marsupials evolved.

(FIRE CRACKLES)

Now their world is on fire.

(FIRE CRACKLES)

FIREFIGHTER OVER RADIO: 431. Request
your assistance, over.(SIREN WAILS)

REPORTER: A lightning strike sparked
one of the biggest bushfires

the world has ever seen.

REPORTER: A state of emergency has
been declared,

crews calling the conditions as bad
as it gets.

(WHOOSHING AND ROARING)

In places,
the fires become so violent,

they create their own weather.

(RUMBLING AND ROARING)

REPORTER: The scale of this
emergency is hard to get your head
around.

The largest fire front in the
country's history.

From Queensland...

..into Western Australia,

Victoria...

to New South Wales.

(ROARING)

(SIREN WAILS)

(HORN BLARES)

It feels like the whole continent is
on fire.

Off the coast of South Australia,

a blaze consumes half of Kangaroo
Island,

home to 50,000 koalas.

For the slow-moving tree dweller,

there's no escape.

At the western tip of the island,

Shona and Rick Fisher live on a small
acreage.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

With fires still burning,
they check on their horses.

But they soon discover it's the
wildlife that needs their help.

Looking, looking, looking.Over
here, there might be some in the
corner.

REPORTER: It's difficult to gauge
the full impact on the koala
population,

but here they fear it could be
catastrophic.

There doesn't seem to be anyone
searching at this end.

We've become the koala people, I
suppose.

Rick and Shona assess if koalas can
stay

or if they need to be rescued.

(MURMURS SOFTLY)

Might need some water.

Feet are burnt.

Can't put any weight on the back
legs.

Oh, poor Mama, hey? You poor Mama.

We only wanna take the ones that
can't climb,

that need medical treatment.

Yes.

Sometimes they're asking for help.
They almost walk up to you.

But that's why we're out here. We're
trying to save some of them.

How are you, eh?

Hey, little fella.

Well, this little boy's good, he can
climb.

For many...it's too late.

Mum.

He's dead.He's dead?Mm-hm.
Hey, sweetheart, hm?

Oh, this is one of the saddest
things I've seen.

For her to be sitting here with her
dead baby, that's just...

It's horrible, so... But um...

It's heartbreaking.

The mother's best chance of survival

now rests in the hands of Shona and
Rick.

(GROWLS)But even now, she's not
ready to leave her baby behind.

She's obviously traumatised, she's
lost her baby.

(GROWLS AND GRUNTS)

(GRUNTS)

(GRUNTS)

Over the days following the fire,

Rick and Shona pick up over 120
koalas to take into care.

(GRUNTS SOFTLY)

OK, are you done there?Yep.
OK, no sweat, that's good.

As fires still burn,

Shona and Rick head to a makeshift
koala hospital on the island.

You're a pretty girl.

(CHUCKLING)Yeah.
WOMAN: ..and both hind paws.

Vets, volunteers
and defence force soldiers

are on hand to treat the injured
animals.

..a number. And gonna put some cream
on.

Under anaesthetic, the mother is
assessed and treated for burns.

I think that's the one that had the
baby.

Had a baby?The baby died. She was
sitting next to it on the ground.

WOMAN: Are you all right, sweetie?
Yeah.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

After the fires, more than 600 koalas

are given critical care in this
emergency centre.

Well, today we're done, we've handed
them in

and kept an eye on them and found
out how they're going.

The mother koala that we found with
the dead baby,

they're confident that she's gonna
be fine.

She's got burns on all four feet,

but they're quite confident that
she'll be OK.

At least 40,000 koalas died in the
bushfire that ravaged the island.

Those that survived,
lost 80% of their habitat.

Few will ever return home.

It's a story repeated across the
continent.

Before the fires, the majestic
forests

of the New South Wales coast
once stood as cathedrals,

reaching all the way to the sea.

(BIRDS CHIRRUP AND SQUAWK)

Four weeks after the fires,

the forests have become a desolate
place.

Unrecognisable.

Across the Black Summer,
20 million hectares

have been reduced to ash
in the space of a few months.

11,000 individual fires burnt through
New South Wales alone.

The scale of the crisis
is hard to fathom.

An area larger than England has been
razed.

Survivors emerge into a landscape

stripped of food, water and shelter.

In the Southern Highlands,

American naturalist John Creighton
searches for wombats

he's monitored for the last two
years.

The first morning of the fire, this
place was still smoking.

The ground was ash. Not a single
leaf.

Trees were still smouldering.

There was no life. Not a single
bird.

It was a shocking, shocking sight.

And my hope is those wombats
that have found safety in that area

are still there and have survived
this fire.

Instead, he finds a graveyard.

This is definitely wombat bones.

That's a hip bone.

All right, so this wombat would have
been caught outside of its burrow

and I would say intense heat - died
instantly.

And the temperatures that... To
bring a bone to this nature

would've been crematorium
temperatures.

Shocking. It's really just shocking
for this poor little guy.

Less optimistic, John resumes his
search.

He knows many of the burrows in this
area.

Finally, hope.

Sshp, sshp!

Sshp-sshp-sshp!

Sshp-sshp-sshp!

Sshp ssssshp!

The noise I'm making is a greeting
sound for the wombats.

And, if she trusts me,

she'll come out.

Sshp, sshp.

Sshp!

Sshp, sshp.

(SOFT RUSTLING)

Some of those burrows,
they're 4, 10, 15, 20m long.

So, by staying in their burrows,
they would've made it through.

Some of the other animals would've
run into those burrows.

I think the echidna and the goanna.

I don't think the wombat was
shepherding them and saying,

"Come on in", but the animals
know where to go to get safe.

The ones that did come out of their
burrows and survive,

they were left with a world with no
food, no water.

It wouldn't have made much sense to
them

and they would've eventually walked,
trying to find new food.

The other ones that didn't, or
couldn't,

would have died of thirst or
starvation.

It's been a good six weeks since the
fire has passed

and still no real sign of edible,
sustainable growth.

Things are growing back
and there's shoots on trees and
things coming up,

but this is not the stuff the wombat
would eat.

At dusk, John lays out food for the
forest survivors.

The scent carries through the burnt
bush as an invitation.

Nature will come back.

It's happening already, but it's
going to take time.

In the Hunter Valley region,

the extreme summer is taking its
toll.

Even where fire didn't reach, native
animals are struggling.

With its webbed feet,

the platypus is not suited for travel
over land.

But drought is forcing it to search
for the last of the water.

Further upstream, staff from a nearby
animal sanctuary

are scouring the remaining puddles.

Rare Manning River turtles are found
hunkered down in the mud,

trying to keep cool as the river
dries.

For many, it's too late.

I've just walked the entire riverbed

and found countless turtles that are
dead...

and two dead platypus.

So, I think it hurts just a little
bit more

because we've just missed them by
this much.

They've only just died.

Wildlife carer Hayley Shute

continues searching for survivors,
in dire conditions.

'I've never seen a drought like this
before.

I've never seen a river system in
this kind of condition.

I can't put words to describe how
devastating it is

and how much everything needs
water.'

So, to see this, it's actually
heartbreaking.

Nine platypus are found still alive.

The team relocates the healthy ones
into deeper pools

and take five of the most
fragile into care.

Nearby, at the Wandandian Kangaroo
and Wallaby Sanctuary,

the fires came right to the
fence-line.

WOMAN: Well, I was thinking that and
then I was like...

Putting animals before their own
safety,

staff and volunteers return to
receive an influx of injured roos.

That's for Tikki.Flame's being fed.

She's being fed now?Yeah. Ash is
being fed.

The injured roos are given
fire-related names

like Ash, Smoky and Sparkles.

Burnt feet are the most common
injury,

but even stress can be a killer.

Despite constant care,
few adults survive fire trauma.

Orphan joeys are, surprisingly, more
resilient.

There you go, sweetheart.

This is Sandy, who was orphaned

when her mum needed to be euthanised
because she was badly injured.

She got called Sandy cos Mum's pouch
had a lot of sand. (LAUGHS)

She was covered in sand when she
came out.

Cos she's so perfect, she's been a
little bit of respite

amongst all the others that are so
badly injured.

She's got the most perfect feet.
Everyone loves her.

Come on, come and get your milk.

(CLICKS TONGUE) Come on.

Come on, come and get your milk.

For the young orphans, human
surrogates and formula milk

offer them a fighting chance.

It's difficult for kangaroos to
bounce back from burns.

Infection moves quickly into bones.

That's closed up, but given that
that's

one of her major weight-bearing
points there,

we'll probably keep bandaging that
for a little bit longer.

Keeping this roo on her feet is
doubly important.

This one should still have a little
joey.

Only a jellybean.

As months pass, attention shifts from
caring for the injured

to taking stock of the loss.

The inferno that tore through the
South Endeavour Conservation Reserve

at Bezzants Lease

burned with such intensity,

it's unclear if anything survived.

Finding hidden signs of life
takes detective work...

..and camera traps are a perfect
tool.

My standardised 50 is just here.

Top of the camera at 50.

Ecologists Eridani and Sabrina

from Australian Wildlife Conservancy,

set up cameras with the hope of
recording nocturnal species.

'So, we use a general bait, which is
contained in a canister.

It's peanut butter, rolled oats,
sardines.

So, it's attractive to both small
mammals

and carnivorous marsupials.'

Even Australians don't often get a
chance to see

the amazing diversity of fauna in
Australia.

So, using camera traps is a way that
we can see

what's out there and find out what
they do in their night-time lives.

The high-altitude forests of
the New England Tablelands

are renowned for their biodiversity.

But the inhabitants are secretive,

even in the best of times.

Naturalists Jasmine and Ritchie

are searching the lower swamplands.

This requires laying pitfall traps.

I think there's a chance we'll find
something.

Not optimistic, but hopeful.

But traps left out overnight

are not revealing any reptiles or
small mammals either.

Zero out of 25, not great.Yeah.

But Jasmine and Ritchie have one more
trick in their tool kit.

So, I reckon between these two
trees...Yep.

..will be blocking the flyway.Yep.

Have you got yours lined up?Yep.

This is a harp trap.

So, it is how we trap microbat
species.

Yep.Just like this?Yep.

Mouse-sized microbats make up
one-fifth

of all Australian mammals.

But whether they've survived the
blaze is still unknown.

It will take nightfall to find out.

(CHIRRUPING AND CROAKING)

I'll just come this side.

Oh, my God.

Oh, yes!We've got a bat!A little
bat.

Good job.Excellent.

Aw, aren't you lovely?

Yeah, it's really cute.

Bats go into torpor during the day,

which is a little mini hibernation

that they do to reserve energy.

And they have actually found that
bats will wake up from torpor

when they smell smoke.

If the fire came close to him then
he would've fled.Yeah, right.

Ooh, looks like he's had an injury.

So, this is an injury is it, this
difference in colour?

Yep, so that's all scar tissue
that's healing now.

Yeah, so I think it has been injured
in the fires.

So, him moving his lips there, he's
echo-locating.

He's trying to figure out what's
going on around him.

So, he's getting ready to fly off.

Yeah, it's probably time to let him
go.

Come on, buddy, time to go.
(CHUCKLES)

Oh! That was quick.

It's a good sign to find microbats.

It's an indicator the insect biomass
is recovering too.

After several weeks, Eridani and
Sabrina return.

Today we've come back to collect
those traps

and just see what's on them.

(BIRDSONG AND CHIRRUPING)

All right.

OK, let's have a look, see what
we've got in the last three weeks.

That's a swampy.Yep.

Echidna!

Quoll!Hey!(BOTH LAUGH)

That's great. Spotted-tail quoll.
Oh!

Oh, he wants in.Oh.He really wants
in to the bait.

Give me the bait!Yeah, it is really
exciting

to see spotted-tailed quolls.

They're a listed threatened species.

What? Whose ear is that?Who's that?
Oh, I don't know.

Who are you?What is that?

Oh, it's a wombat!A wombat!
(BOTH LAUGH)

Oh, my goodness!He takes up
the whole...He's enormous!

(BOTH LAUGH)

I mean, that's a really great suite
of animals.

It's really encouraging and
heartening to see these animals on
camera traps.

But they are still the larger
species

that have the ability to find
refuge.

The critical part is continuing
surveying

to find out if smaller mammals and
reptiles are still here.

But the camera trap has also captured
a worrying sign.

Oh.Oh, feral cat. That's not cool.

For animals that have survived,

feral cats are probably one of the
biggest problems.

It's known that particularly feral
cats

will use fire scars to hunt because
their prey items are exposed.

Another one.Oh, a different one.
So, there's at least two there.

And another one.Yeah.

So, there's quite a few out there.

Cats have spread to 99% of Australia

and kill 1.5 billion native animals
every year.

Australia's wild creatures are
especially vulnerable

in the barren aftermath,

where there are few places to hide.

In the fire-ravaged Barrington Range,

conservationist Tim Faulkner

helps one of the last populations of
brush-tailed rock-wallabies.

For the past six months,

we've been providing food, or food
drops,

to about four known little wallaby
hotspots.

Without a doubt, if we hadn't
brought food here

at least ten wallabies that live on
this outcrop would've perished.

Of the 15 species of rock-wallaby in
Australia,

most have disappeared from their
original range...

..due to feral predators and land
clearing.

Rock outcrops, like tiny islands,

are where the brush-tailed
rock-wallaby hangs on.

But the population is teetering.

With 80% of rock-wallaby habitat
being burnt

it means areas like this are now
critical.

When you have an enclave like this,
that's fragmented,

it becomes all the more precious.

This forest here as we stand, it's
been burnt,

it's regrowing and that looks
pretty.

It's a bit of green. But it is an
ecological ghost town.

And it was before the fires.

Its entire mammal suite has
disappeared,

other than kangaroos, wombats and
species that are too big

for the feral fox or feral cat to
eat.

It's lost all of its natives.

Australia has the worst mammal
extinction rate on earth.

And over 90% of all our extinctions

are related to the introduced feral
fox and feral cat.

Let's step back 200 years to this
forest right here.

Just in this small area, let's say
the size of half a football field,

we would've had one bandicoot, one
bettong,

one potoroo, one small wallaby.

We would've had a predator, like a
quoll.

An overlapping Tassie devil
3,000 years ago.

All gone.

Let's drop down another scale.
Native rodents - they're gone.

With that have gone the predators.

There's no tiger snakes.
There's no pythons.

There's no lace monitors. The whole
thing is just in collapse.

And I go along here and flip a
hundred rocks

and I won't find one small skink.

And there used to be thousands.

So, in an area just the size of half
a football field,

the overall biomass of animals that
has gone is just unbelievable.

And again, look here now.
It's an empty forest.

With their absence, our whole forest
floor builds up in debris,

because there's nothing turning it
over and turning it into soil.

We've lost that. So, when a fire
starts,

it's got so much fuel on the ground.

That fuel burns. And the hotter it
burns,

the higher the fire gets. And then
we have canopy fires.

Bringing those marsupials back could
play a critical role

in the reduction of fire fuel load.

But bringing them back also has its
challenges

because they've gone for a reason

and that's because of the introduced
feral fox and the feral cat.

Tim has made it his life's work
to re-establish populations

of Australia's rare and threatened
mammals.

At a secure facility, atop the
Barrington Range,

an ark of Australian animals is being
bred

as insurance populations.

After the fires, the work here is
more urgent than ever before.

Around about there for now.

Hey, fat lady.

Amongst the animals being bred for
release are Tasmanian devils,

the largest surviving marsupial
carnivore.

There you go.

Let's have a look.

That's it, big girl.

Good girl. You got some?Look at
that.

A peek inside the pouch

shows tiny joeys developing.

..one, three.

A little girl.Oh, look at 'em.And
a little boy.

And...last one...

is another little boy. Two boys and
a girl.

Good effort, Mum.

That's awesome.

What we'll do is we'll tuck her
joeys back in

and then we'll pop her back in her
nest box.

(GRUNTS)I know, I know.

Righto.

The Ark has bred over 450 devils,

with 50 set free in Tasmania.

Hundreds of other animals have been
raised for release in national parks.

But restocking wild populations

depends on creatures having wild
places to live.

(SQUEAKING AND SNARLING)

Australia has been facing the loss
of its natural places

and natural things for a very long
time.

The fires should act as a big
wake-up call,

and not just for eastern Australia.

The catastrophic loss of
biodiversity throughout Australia

is very well documented.

If fires have brought that to light,
let that be the good.

(CHIRRUPING AND SQUAWKING)

In the forests of Queensland's
Darling Downs,

life awakens.

(CHIRRUPING AND SQUAWKING)

Epicormic shoots are sprouting from
tree trunks.

Like lime-green feather boas,

they adorn the blackened bodies of
the gums.

(SQUAWKS)

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

Storms bring the hope of landscape
recovery.

Quenching rains soften the baked
soil...

..and add the lifegiving ingredient
to buried seeds.

(BIRDS CHIRRUP)

It's been almost eight months since
the Gospers Mountain blaze

turned the famous Blue Mountains
black.

80% of this World Heritage area

was razed by the fires.

Today is the first time
ornithologists Anastasia and Vicky

have returned to their study site in
the Jamison Valley.

We're hoping that the birds have
survived

and we're hoping to hear a dawn
chorus cos it's the middle of
winter,

it's their breeding season and they
should be starting to sing now.

(BIRDSONG AND CHIRRUPING)

I think he's over there. You see
him?Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do.

(BIRD CALL)

(SQUAWKING)
It's amazing that they're here.

(SQUAWKING)

Finding survivors is encouraging...

Oh, it's good to see him.

..but seeing the males perform
courtship displays

is the best sign of recovery.

Yeah, so the male superb lyrebird,

he's most famous for his vocal
mimicry.

(HIGH-PITCHED CALL)

(SQUAWKS AND CHIRRUPS)

They can mimic a huge range of
sounds in the environment...

(HIGH-PITCHED CALL)

..mainly other species of bird.

(HIGH-PITCHED CALL)

They can mimic a camera shutter,
chainsaws,

all sorts of bizarre things.

(SQUAWKS)

(CHIRRUPS)

Last year, we had this great team of
excellent biologists

finding lyrebirds throughout the
entire range

of New South Wales, Victoria, ACT,
Southern Queensland.

And then at least half of those
sites have now gone

We've looked at the maps, um...

It's incredible. It's...

It's really, really upsetting.

So, we feel that some of the birds
that we've recorded

will have perished in the fires.

And perhaps some of the dialects,

some of these different animal
cultures,

may have become extinct just in, you
know,

a few months during these fires.

To see these places,
one after each other,

be destroyed, it's devastating.

What has been lost?
What is left now?

Uh, have we lost whole animal
cultures?

(CHIRPING)

We heard more singing this morning
than I thought we would,

given what I saw on the fire maps of
how badly this area's been affected.

And so the fact that these males
have survived,

it's a good sign that these females
have survived as well.

Each breeding season, Vicky checks
the nests

of the females in her study sites.

So, along here we have Gertrude.

Her neighbour is Xena. And then the
final bird on the end

that we were working with was Queen
Victoria.

And we were just in the territory of
Diana.

Lyrebirds have shown resilience in
the moment of fire.

So, we know that they will go down
wombat holes.

We know that they will hide in creek
lines.

They're not very good flyers, so
when faced with fire, it's not like
they can fly away.

They've kind of just got to hunker
down.

Foremost on Vicky's mind
is her favourite bird Gertrude.

She has checked her nest for the last
four years.

(So, that's her nest over there.)

And I can't see her,

but there's a feather in the nest.

And so, to me that says it's an
active nest.

And so, that's a really, really good
sign.

But I'm going to have to get
closer...

..to see if she's in it.

Hi! Long time no see, sweetheart.

Hello.

And so she's trying to distract me
from her location.

So, I'm just going to check if
there's an egg in here.

Very gently.

And yep, we have an egg.

So, this cargo is very, very
precious,

remembering that they only have one
per year.

Pop it back to safety.

I'm just so pleased. (LAUGHS)

I assumed that all these birds were
gone.

And I grieved for them because I
didn't think they would survive.

Today has been wonderful to give me
a bit of hope.

She's looking at me.

Like small mammals who reduce fuel
loads by tilling the soil,

lyrebirds also play a vital role as
landscape engineers.

Each bird moves 150 tonnes of soil
every year,

more than any other animal on earth.

Lyrebirds actually help decrease the
chance of really intense fires

because they're helping with the
decomposition of leaves

and preventing that kind of build-up

that can lead to really intense
fire.

(CHIRRUPING)

The forest relies on lyrebirds,

just as they rely on the forest.

(CHIRRUPING AND SQUAWKING)

It's estimated three billion native
vertebrates

perished in Australia's Black Summer
fires.

The equivalent of almost half the
human population of the planet.

No other event anywhere in the world
in living memory

has killed or displaced as many
animals.

It's an unfathomable loss of rare and
precious wildlife.

Australia's Black Summer fires

rank as the worst wildlife disaster
in modern history.

But Australia is just the leading
edge of a new global reality.

(SIREN WAILS AND HORN BLARES)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Humans are pushing the planet to a
new epoch of fire.

It's been dubbed the Pyrocene.

(ROARING)

Climate modelling predicts longer,

more dangerous fire seasons

for both the southern and northern
hemispheres.

As global temperatures reach
cataclysmic new highs,

a hotter, more fiery planet

means intervention will be
increasingly necessary

for animals to survive in a world
where the rules have changed.

In the ashes of Namadgi National
Park,

in the Australian Capital Territory,

Professor David Lindenmayer

surveys the obliterated landscape.

As a world-renowned fire ecologist,

David has been researching how the
fire seasons are changing.

What we're seeing is unprecedented
fire.

Places that are burning that should
never burn,

such as sub-tropical rainforest,

and places that are burning
repeatedly.

No ecosystems are geared to deal
with very frequent,

very high-intensity and
high-severity fires.

And the danger is that that will

lead to the collapse of some
ecosystems

and the extinction of some of the
species associated with those
environments.

We simply have to tackle issues with
climate change.

Climate and weather are the
fundamental drivers of fire.

We have to take part in this global
discussion

about what we are going to do to
control carbon emissions,

what we are going to do to store
more carbon in the environment,

and what we are going to do to deal
with

the kinds of catastrophic events
that we've seen.

Climate change is not something far
off in la-la land.

It's here and now.

It's a clear and present danger.

Flame robin, right here. See the
male?(CHIRRUPING)

There he is. It's one of the first
birds that we start to pick up

in the environment
when it's been burnt like this.

He's cross with me because I'm
wearing red.

There would have been enormous
mortality of animals in this area.

Many populations would have been
knocked back -

90...95%, maybe even more.

But those residual animals that have
survived

and can make a living directly after
the fire,

will be important for recovering
populations in these kinds of areas.

The key thing is that these areas

don't burn again in the next few
years.

What we experienced in 2019-20 was a
catastrophe in Australia.

But the reality is that many, many
other parts of the world

are going to experience these kinds
of problems.

We have to work harder to come up
with good solutions

in a proactive way.

It's the only way forward.

The platypus rescued early in the
summer

is now ready to head home.

Today is such a big day for Buddy.

He has been putting weight and
condition on

for the last six months.

And he is very excited, by the looks
of it, to go out into the wild.

A wet winter has brought rivers back
to life.

I'll miss him a lot... (LAUGHS)

You're ready to go.

..but it's really, really exciting
to be able to let him go.

Feels amazing. I got a little bit
teary there.

He's actually just checking out
where he might make his new home.

There's lots of food around.
Hopefully he'll find a female

and start to repopulate this area.

So, fingers crossed, we have little
Buddies swimming around soon.

(BIRDSONG AND CHIRRUPING)

Almost one year after the fires,

the Blue Mountains are greening
again.

With high hopes, Vicky returns to
Gertrude's nest site.

And so we've come back today to see
if that egg

has turned into a chick, hopefully.

Vicky finds the nest...
and Gertrude, too.

So, this is a really good sign.

They put their wing up. It's a
defensive behaviour.

I would expect her to only be doing
that

if either she still had an egg or
there was a chick in the nest now.

The stakes are high. Last year we
had a predation rate of about 90%,

so most nests didn't survive.

And so it's always a bit
nerve-wracking

when you go back to see if there is
a chick because there may have been

or you may have missed it and not
been there in time.

(HIGH-PITCHED CALL)
Hopefully there's one in there.

Yes, there is a chick.

(HIGH-PITCHED SCREECH)

(SQUAWKS FRANTICALLY)

There we are.

Look. Hello.

(CHITTERING)

You notice it's listening to Mum.

(CHITTERING)
(CHIRPS SOFTLY)

Considering what happened with the
fires,

I'm just so stoked to see this
little one. (LAUGHS)

Beautiful.(SQUAWKS SOFTLY)

I'm always happy to see a lyrebird
baby,

but this baby is very special.

There we go. I didn't even think
Gertrude would have survived

and the fact that she's not only
survived

but has a beautiful, healthy chick -
I'm just over the moon.

For Australia's precious wildlife to
recover,

it will take many years and much
human help.

(CHATTERS)

(BIRDS CHIRRUP AND CHATTER)

Communities working to regenerate
landscapes

and create safe, feral-proof havens
for wildlife

will be essential.

As will be the necessity to preserve

fragile habitats
and threatened species.

And captive breeding to restock wild
populations

will also reduce the risk of
extinction

in case of future fires.

I think there's a whole range of
things that need to be addressed.

Where are our small mammals?

Who's looking after the forest in a
natural way?

Are we correctly managing fire
within our parks?

Then we've got the super-beast of
climate change.

Which areas can we tackle

and which have the real tangible
impact before it's too late?

The fires have brought a real
awareness to Australia,

and the rest of the world,
of how fragile we really are.

It's only through work like this and
everybody doing something,

moving it forward, that we will see
the change, we will see healing.

(BIRDS CHIRRUPING)

(BIRDSONG)

(CHIRRUPING AND SQUAWKING)

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