A$25 Million Gift Backs a Plan to Protect Wildlife on 5% of Australia

The Wright Burt Foundation, created by Perth couple Alexandra and Julian Burt, announced on Nov. 5, 2026, that it is giving A$25 million (about US$16 million) to Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). AWC will use the money to buy land and expand protection for threatened species across Australia.¹

AWC shared the announcement with Hooray News on Nov. 5. Among the animals it says will benefit are the greater bilby and the northern hairy-nosed wombat.¹

AWC says its work now covers about 1.7% of Australia. Under its 2035 Strategic Plan, the nonprofit intends to extend its impact to more than 5% of the country’s landmass and take more threatened species into its care.¹

What the money pays for

AWC Chief Executive Tim Allard said the gift will let the group speed up its work through strategic land purchases and more capacity to protect threatened species.¹

“The Wright Burt Foundation’s generous investment in Australian conservation will go a long way in helping to restore and protect critical habitat, reduce threats from invasive species such as feral cats, and support plans to increase our footprint across Australia before the next decade,” Allard said in AWC’s announcement.¹

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Some of the money is already at work. AWC says it is helping pay for its newest sanctuary, Boulder Wildlife Sanctuary on King Island, Tasmania.¹

The group already owns, manages or partners on more than 6.8 million hectares. It influences another 6.1 million hectares through pastoral partnerships, which are agreements with working farms and grazing properties.¹

Ghost bats on a cattle station

AWC and the Burts already knew each other well. According to the release, they have worked together since 2018 at Bullo River Station, a cattle station in the Northern Territory. AWC calls it the first partnership of its kind between a conservation group and a cattle station.¹

AWC says the work there has detected rare species such as the Scaly-tailed Possum and the Ghost Bat, and has restored land that had been degraded.¹ Not many cattle operations can list a Ghost Bat among the locals.

Julian Burt pointed to AWC’s enclosures kept free of feral predators. “AWC’s pioneering efforts, especially with feral predator-free enclosures, has meant, quite literally, the difference between many species of mammal becoming extinct or not,” he said in the release.¹

Part of an A$120 million package

The AWC gift is one piece of a larger A$120 million (about US$78 million) commitment from the foundation to 10 conservation and environmental organizations.¹³ Published reports say AWC, Bush Heritage Australia and Greenpeace Australia Pacific each receive A$25 million. BirdLife Australia and Great Southern Land Conservancy each get A$10 million (about US$6.5 million), and the remaining five groups share about A$26.65 million, roughly A$5.33 million (about US$3.5 million) each.²⁴

For some recipients, that smaller share is still a record. Rainforest Rescue says its portion is the largest gift in its 27-year history.⁶

Atticus Fleming, chief executive of Great Southern Land Conservancy and one of the recipients, said the full package could be the biggest conservation gift in Australian history, or at least the biggest in his 30 years in the field.³

Julian Burt is a descendant of Sir Archibald Burt, Western Australia’s first chief justice. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia last year for service to the arts, the church and the environment. Alexandra Burt is a granddaughter of iron-ore pioneer Peter Wright.³⁴

Alexandra Burt framed the gift as one part of a bigger effort to halt the loss of Australia’s wildlife. “All our efforts, including those of philanthropy, business, government and the broader community need to increase to reverse this decline,” she said in the release.¹