Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) protects nearly two percent of Australia's landscape- a colossal portion given the size of this country. With so much land to oversee, the key to conservation lies not just in human effort, but in the smart technology that amplifies it.
AWC's IT team has streamlined a series of labour-intensive manual processes with specialised remote sensors, revolutionising conservation monitoring on a landscape-size scale.
These devices detect and report live data from the field to one centralised , nationwide platform, a custom-developed Internet of Things (IoT) Dashboard that allows us to view all key metrics in one place. These alert systems work in tandem to support land management goals, saving time and funds and allowing staff to respond faster than ever to environmental signals.
We're already seeing the benefits of this technology at Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary (in the Avon Valley, WA). Here, this network allows us to remotely monitor changes in traps, the condition of gates, electric fences, water points, storage tanks, and more-significantly reducing the need for manual labour.
Nadia Nieuwhof/AWC With the design and deployment of targeted devices to monitor these focus areas, we've seen a range of improvements to our monitoring effectiveness on sanctuary.
One major advancement has been centralised access-having all the sensing devices connect to one monitoring platform. This simplifies monitoring and management, allowing real-time surveillance and alerts within and across sanctuaries. It also reduces the complexity of switching between multiple systems, saving time and minimising the risk of overlooking critical data.
Another major advantage is the economy of scale. Instead of relying on third-party tracking services, which charge fixed costs per device each year, we've built or purchased our own devices upfront. This drastically reduces ongoing expenses, as the initial device purchase becomes the primary cost. The more devices we deploy, the lower the per-unit cost of using our centralised platform, allowing us to scale up without breaking the bank.
Y Assad/AWC AWC's Chief Information Technology Officer Damien Kerr says,
"This IOT platform represents a new level of efficiency, safety and resource management-saving people and vehicle time, fuel, improving animal welfare and enhancing feral predator control by providing complete visibility over monitoring devices covering twenty square kilometres of rugged, often inaccessible terrain."
Developing this custom approach has taken time, as each AWC sanctuary presents unique environmental and technical challenges. Before settling on any solution, we conducted thorough theoretical and practical evaluations for each application, which helped account for factors such as signal coverage, power efficiency, and environmental obstacles like terrain and weather.
AWC Network and Telecommunications Specialist Yezmin Assad adds, "By designing and coding our own devices, we've been able to overcome the limitations of off-the-shelf technologies. We've fine-tuned aspects like battery performance, signal strength, and data transmission timing, ensuring the technology works reliably in remote, challenging locations."
A key application of this approach has been with Paruna's custom trigger boxes – devices which trigger feral cat traps and send instant alerts to our ecologists. These boxes were built in-house to save costs and meet specific functional requirements, as commercial off-the-shelf solutions couldn't integrate seamlessly with our remote sensor network. The devices also enhance trap checking efficiency and animal welfare outcomes, allowing our ecologists to identify and respond to triggered traps in a targeted manner.
Y Assad/AWC To date, all 55 of Paruna's sensor integrated traps have proven 100% reliable in alert accuracy, GPS locating, and portability. Fully integrated with AWC's national alerting system, they represent a low-cost, scalable solution for trap alerts and remote monitoring on a landscape-size scale.
Looking ahead, we will continue refining and expanding our use of custom IoT devices, finding new ways to monitor a broader range of metrics and enhance conservation outcomes. As we push the boundaries of this technology, the possibilities for improving efficiency and achieving greater impact are vast.
