The Andrews Labor Government is investing in the state’s biodiversity and helping Victorians get to know our wildlife from the comfort of their home.

Minister for the Environment and Climate Action Lily D’Ambrosio today announced that Bandicam will be livestreaming the endangered marsupial from its habitat in southwest Victoria.

Thanks to investment from the Labor Government, Bandicam will be set up in Parklands Bandicoot Reserve to create greater awareness of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot species with people everywhere.

The project follows the successful launch of Platycam earlier this year, the world’s only livestream of platypus in the wild in the Grange Burn in Hamilton.

Platycam streams the waters of the Grange Burn in Hamilton, which are inhabited by Platypus thanks to ongoing waterway improvement works by Glenelg Hopkins CMA, Southern Grampians Shire Council and Wannon Water.

Bandicam is a partnership between the Government and GoverGlenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and Southern Grampians Shire Council. The Government has provided $17,000 to the Bandicam project which supports its Biodiversity 2037 plan to protect the state’s natural environment.

The Eastern Barred Bandicoot created national history last year when its conservation status was changed from ‘extinct in the wild’ to ‘endangered’, thanks to successful recovery activities across a suite of partners over the last 30 years.

The successful recovery of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot in Australia has its roots in Hamilton in the 1980s, when the last remaining wild population on the Australian mainland was recovered from the Hamilton town tip, where the bandicoots were using old car bodies to escape predation from cats and foxes.

Hamilton’s Parklands Bandicoot Reserve was also the very first predator-free enclosure created for the bandicoots to support their recovery, with animals introduced back into the local area in 1989.

The Government has invested more than $560 million in protecting biodiversity and the environment since 2014.

To livestream our wildlife go to bandicam.com.au or platycam.com.au

Quotes attributable to Minister for the Environment and Climate Action Lily D’Ambrosio

“Bandicam and Platycam let Victorians connect with our wonderful wildlife from wherever they are in the world.”

“We’ve invested more in our precious wildlife than any other Government in Victoria’s history, working to stop the decline of native plants and animals and improve the state’s natural environment.”