Lara Tilbrook, Owner, Bush Organics Kangaroo Island

Lara Tilbrook’s property and business, Bush Organics Kangaroo Island, sustained significant damage in last summer’s fires. Her 400 acres of high conservation heritage listed bushland was devastated by the fire with beehives, workshops, tools and irrigation systems all lost.

To assist with immediate recovery and to aid in rebuilding her business, Bush Organics received a generator funded by the National Bushfire Appeal.

This generator provided power to Lara’s off-the-grid home as well as to volunteers from local community organisations - Kangaroo Island Conservation Landowners Association (KICLA) and Kangaroo Island Wildlife Network (KIWLN) - who used Lara’s property as a base for supporting the conservation of habitat and wildlife impacted by the fires in western Kangaroo Island. With two-thirds of this area wiped out by fire, including Flinders Chase and Western River National Parks, KICLA and KIWLN volunteers worked to assess the damage caused, assemble nesting boxes for pygmy possums, birds and bats, and monitor wildlife affected.

As some of the last refuge areas for wildlife and threatened species in the west of the island, Lara and her neighbours have worked hard to restore infrastructure and preserve, protect and renew the biodiversity of their community, farms and natural heritage.