Checking in to the Bandicoot Motel

Southern Brown Bandicoots (Isoodon obesulus) are a ground living, threatened mammal native to Southwest Victoria. They're also an important part of the cultural heritage of Traditional Owners. Unfortunately, they’re declining in most locations due to loss of habitat and predation by foxes and feral cats.

Their preferred native habitats attract introduced predators and are very vulnerable to wildfires. After fires, loss of vegetation refuge can cause localised Bandicoot extinctions. To prevent this, current populations need to gain access to discrete, enduring, predator and fire resilient refuges.

Bandicoot Motels are artificial refuges invented by Lisette Mill to enable an estimated population of twelve Southern Brown Bandicoots living in and around a 29-hectare Parks Victoria remnant woodland at St Helens, Victoria to have greater predator and wildfire survival rates. The invention has also been picked up as a trial by The Basalt to Bay Landcare Network.

Bandicoot Motels are child’s play to build

Image credit - Lisette Mills

Bandicoot Motels are child’s play to build

Image credit - Lisette Mills

The first 10 motels were built in 2019 as part of the Hands On Learning (HOL) Program which aims to provide students with ‘hands-on’ experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

In the 3 years since their installation the Bandicoot Motels have not been breached by predators. They are exclusively being occupied by native fauna as refuges. Two of these motels also appear as being used by Southern Brown Bandicoots.

An additional 20 Bandicoot Motels have now been built in 2 local rural area schools as part of the HOL Program and installed in 2 new government land-owned sites with Southern Brown Bandicoot potential.

Assisting Southern Brown Bandicoots to access land beyond the little reserves they currently inhabit also benefits the agricultural and environmental economy of Victoria. For instance, Southern Brown Bandicoots spread native mycorrhizal fungi in and from reserves onto farmed land. This creates beneficial nutrient capture associations in the root zone for native vegetation communities, pasture, shelterbelts, and forestry.

They also micro-till the topsoil looking for insects and fungi by burying organic material in the topsoil at a much larger rate than dung beetles can. This burying increases nutrient capture by stimulating nutrient recycling, thereby preventing organic matter from being burnt and/or washed away. Burying organic matter also assists in reducing fire risk.

Southern Brown Bandicoots also dig small holes that create depressions which enable greater water penetration. This increases water held in the soil profile, increases water recharge to aquifers, and helps intercept more rainfall during storms. In turn, this reduces flooding and nutrient loss too.

“I invented Bandicoot Motels to solve the problem of how to help Bandicoots avoid predators in places where resources for dedicated predator control is low. They don’t rot, warp, or burn. Kids can make them so anyone can make them. They are the ultimate inexpensive tool to reverse trends for bandicoot extinctions. Bandicoots used to be as common as rabbits in Southwest Victoria and in 80 years they have been all but lost entirely. Bandicoot Motels are a way that any land manager can work to bring them back from the brink and let them reclaim the country they once assisted naturally – by starting where they are now and building from there.”

Lisette Mill, inventor of Bandicoot Motel

This initiative gets kids involved and provides practical and educational links to their learning. It also provides a proven template for other threatened ground living native fauna across Australia impacted by habitat loss, wildfires and introduced predators.