Central and southern populationsCentral and southern populations

Central and southern populations

Today, central Eastern Bristlebirds occur in central coastal New South Wales at Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, Budderoo National Park, the Jervis Bay area, near Cataract Dam and at Red Rock Nature Reserve (Baker 1997, 1998; Bramwell 2008; OEH 2012; BirdLife International 2021; Bain et al. 2021). Subpopulations on Beecroft Peninsula, and Cataract on the Woronora Plateau, were reintroduced for conservation purposes (Baker et al. 2012). In the central populations, there are historical records

of the species at several locations between Sydney and Ulladulla where the species is thought to now be extinct.

The southern population occurs in Victoria at Howe Flat in Croajingolong National Park and in southern New South Wales at Nadgee Nature Reserve. Southern Eastern Bristlebirds have also undergone a significant population decline and range contraction in Victoria. Surveys in the late 1990s failed to locate the species at nine confirmed former sites and two unconfirmed sites in Victoria (Baker 1998; Clarke &

Bramwell 1998). There are historical records at scattered sites from the NSW border to near Lake Tyers (White 1915; Clarke & Bramwell 1998), unconfirmed reports from Wilsons Promontory and Tarwin Lower-Walkerville (Cooper 1975; Emison et al. 1987; Mitchell 1995), and subfossil deposits indicating that the distribution once extended west at least as far as Nelson in far south-western Victoria (Blakers et al. 1984;

Baird 1992).

Current EOO and AOO for the central and southern populations are estimated at 8,150 km² (range 8,000–8,300 km²) and 200 km² (range 180–250 km²), respectively (Bain et al. 2021). These populations are not severely fragmented (Bain et al. 2021).