Ecologists buy 1,000-acre blue gum plantation and transform it into wetland it once was

It was 2016, Mark Bachmann was stumped.

He and his team of scientists were three years into transforming a huge tract of agricultural land into the wetland it once was, but had no idea how their small, regional, not-for-profit could negotiate the final step: to buy 1,000 acres of commercial blue gum plantation.

That was when he spotted the platypus.

“I drove out after a big flood to see how our two trial swamps were looking, I’d just taken a few steps off the road and saw a black thing moving up along the bank of a deep drain,” Mr Bachmann said.

“I thought it might be a water rat, but then I got a look at the bill and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s a platypus!'” he said.