10 Australian natives to help endangered species in your garden
Australia has one of the highest rates of species loss in the developed world. The animals on this list are not just beautiful; they are connected parts of the ecosystems they live in. Honeyeaters pollinate the trees that feed gliders and possums, cockatoos disperse seeds across landscapes and moths and butterflies sustain the food chains that birds and reptiles depend on. When they go, they take those functions with them and the places they inhabited become simpler and harder to restore.
While individual gardens cannot replace what has already been lost, they can contribute meaningfully to food, shelter and corridor habitats that are running out rapidly. Each plant below is paired with a threatened or declining animal that depends on it. Most pairings are regional, but if you are in one of these areas, there is a real opportunity.
Shop Tools for Australian Gardeners
Everything you need in your garden.
Southeastern Australia
For the regent honeyeater — plant mugga ironbark (Eucalyptus sideroxylon)
The regent honeyeater was once common across southeastern Australia. There are now fewer than 300 individuals left in the wild. It is critically endangered under the EPBC Act and has become a flagship species for the box-ironbark forests of Victoria and New South Wales, which can no longer be found in sufficient quantity to sustain its nomadic, nectar-following way of life.
Mark Gillow, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The mugga ironbark is one of its preferred food trees, providing reliable nectar across the winter range. It is a medium to large tree suited to dry sclerophyll gardens in NSW, VIC and southern QLD. It handles poor soils, dry summers and frost without complaint. In a garden or on a property in the right region, a mugga ironbark planted today will be feeding honeyeaters for the next century. It also supports several butterfly species and is an important nectar source for the swift parrot.
Bidgee, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
For the swift parrot / swift waylitja — plant yellow gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon)
The swift parrot is one of only three migratory parrots on earth. It breeds in Tasmania each summer and crosses Bass Strait to overwinter on the mainland, where it relies on flowering eucalypts for almost all of its food. Its population is estimated at fewer than 2,000 mature individuals and is declining. It was uplisted to critically endangered in 2016.
Yellow gum is one of its key mainland winter food sources. It is a medium tree that flowers reliably in winter and early spring, precisely when swift parrots arrive on the mainland. It is widely grown in Melbourne and Adelaide gardens, handles a wide range of soils and is one of the more ornamental eucalypts available. The flowers range from white through pink to deep red depending on the form. Plant grafted cultivars for reliable flower colour.
For the glossy black cockatoo — plant black sheoak (Allocasuarina littoralis)
The glossy black cockatoo is among the most diet-specialised birds in the world. It feeds almost exclusively on the seed cones of Allocasuarina species — not the more familiar river casuarinas, but the smaller she-oaks of drier woodland. A single bird extracts up to 580 seed cones per day. When she-oak stands are lost to fire, drought or clearing, the cockatoos have nothing to fall back on.
Black sheoak is a medium shrub to small tree, widely available in nurseries and grows readily in well-drained soils in full sun. Male trees produce the distinctive rusty-red flower spikes; only female trees produce the seed cones the cockatoos need, so plant several to ensure both sexes are present. The autumn burgundy colouring of male trees in flower is a garden asset in its own right.
For the greater glider — plant manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis)
The greater glider feeds almost exclusively on eucalyptus leaves, making it one of the most diet-restricted mammals on earth. It was uplisted from vulnerable to endangered in 2022 following devastating losses in the 2019-20 bushfires. The species also depends on tree hollows for shelter, which take over 150 years to form, making habitat restoration a multi-generational project.
Mark Gillow, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Manna gum is one of its primary food trees in the southeastern range. A large, fast-growing eucalyptus with ribbony bark and white flowers, it suits properties and larger gardens in VIC and southern NSW where it can be given space. It will not provide hollow nesting sites within a human lifetime, but it provides food. In combination with nest boxes installed at 10 metres or higher, it can support gliders in remnant bushland gardens. Planting manna gum alongside habitat restoration work amplifies its value considerably.
For the golden sun moth — plant wallaby grass (Rytidosperma species)
The golden sun moth is a day-flying moth with a life cycle that unfolds almost entirely underground. The female lays her eggs at the base of native grass tussocks and the larvae spend up to two years feeding on the roots before pupating. Adults emerge in summer, live for only a few days and have no functional mouthparts so they do not feed at all. The species is vulnerable under the EPBC Act and almost entirely dependent on native temperate grassland, one of Australia's most cleared ecosystems.
Kai Squires, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Wallaby grass is the primary host plant. It is a fine-textured, clumping native grass that grows across the southern tablelands, ACT and northern Victoria in well-drained, often rocky soils. A patch of mixed native grasses (wallaby grass, spear grass and kangaroo grass) planted in open sun with exposed inter-tussock spaces creates the conditions the moth needs. Avoid mulching between tussocks, which blocks the moth's emergence from the soil.
John Tann from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
For the eastern pygmy possum — plant banksia (Banksia species)
The eastern pygmy possum weighs less than 45 grams and is one of Australia's most important small pollinators. It feeds on nectar and pollen from banksias, eucalypts and bottlebrushes using a brush-tipped tongue and transfers pollen between flowers as it feeds. While not federally listed, it is state-listed as vulnerable or endangered across much of its range and has declined sharply with the loss of heathland.
Any eastern banksia species is valuable. Banksia integrifolia, B. serrata and B. spinulosa are the most widely available and broadly suited to eastern gardens from coastal QLD to Tasmania. They provide nectar across a long season and the dense foliage offers shelter and nesting sites. A garden with several banksia species flowering at different times of year offers the possum a reliable food source through winter. The banksia growing guide covers species selection by climate.
On planting for wildlife
A single tree or plant makes a difference, but a cluster makes a habitat. If your garden is large enough, plant in groups rather than as isolated specimens. The animals on this list are drawn to density and diversity, not single plants. Connecting your garden to neighbouring native plantings, even informally, amplifies the value of everything you grow. Creating a wildlife garden does not require large space, just the right plants.
Southwestern Western Australia
For Carnaby's black cockatoo — plant candle banksia (Banksia attenuata)
Carnaby's black cockatoo is endemic to southwestern WA and is listed as endangered under the EPBC Act. Its population has declined sharply as banksia woodland has been cleared for urban expansion, particularly around Perth. Candle banksia is its single most important food plant on the Swan Coastal Plain, contributing nearly half of all recorded foraging activity in that region.
It is a tall, upright banksia to around 8 metres with long cylindrical cream flower spikes that appear in late winter and spring. It requires freely draining, low-nutrient sandy soil and full sun. In the right garden it is long-lived and structurally striking. Hakea and grevillea species planted alongside it extend the foraging season for the cockatoos. For full cultivation guidance, the banksia growing guide covers variety selection across all climate zones.
For the western ringtail possum / ngwayir — plant peppermint (Agonis flexuosa)
The western ringtail possum, known in Noongar language as ngwayir, has lost more than 95% of its population since European settlement. It is now critically endangered and largely confined to remnant peppermint woodland around Busselton and Albany. It is almost entirely arboreal, feeding primarily on the leaves of weeping peppermint, which provides both food and shelter in a single tree.
Kaori Yokochi, Roberta Bencini, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peppermint is a beautiful, medium to large weeping tree with fragrant foliage and small white flowers. It grows readily in southwestern WA gardens in well-drained soil and full sun and is widely available. Urban gardens in the Busselton and Albany regions that retain or plant peppermints are directly contributing to the survival of one of Australia's most endangered mammals. Canopy continuity matters: a tree that connects to neighbouring peppermints via overlapping branches allows the possums to move without touching the ground, where foxes wait.
MurielBendel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Beyond the plant
Planting the right species is only part of the equation. Keeping cats indoors at night, eliminating rodent baiting that moves through the food chain and leaving leaf litter and fallen timber undisturbed are all things that make a planted garden functional as habitat rather than just aesthetically native.
Northern Australia
For the Gouldian finch — plant cockatoo grass (Alloteropsis semialata)
The Gouldian finch is one of the most visually extraordinary birds in the world and one of Australia's most endangered, with fewer than 2,500 mature individuals remaining in the wild. Its decline is tied almost entirely to changes in its grassland habitat. Altered fire regimes and grazing pressure have reduced the native grass seed it depends on for survival, particularly during the breeding season.
Cockatoo grass is one of its key wet season food plants in the tropical north. It is a native perennial grass suited to the tropical savannah conditions of the NT, far north QLD and northern WA. In northern properties and large gardens, establishing stands of native perennial grasses including cockatoo grass, spinifex and native sorghum creates foraging habitat at the scale the finch needs. This is one entry where the contribution is most meaningful on rural or semi-rural properties rather than suburban blocks.
Marjorie Lundgren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Central Tablelands, New South Wales
For the Bathurst copper butterfly — plant blackthorn (Bursaria spinosa)
The Bathurst copper butterfly is one of Australia's rarest insects. It exists in fewer than thirty known sites across less than thirty hectares of habitat in the central tablelands of NSW. Its entire life cycle depends on a single shrub and a specific attendant ant species that protects the larvae in underground chambers. Without the plant, the butterfly cannot persist. Without the ant, neither can the butterfly.
Native blackthorn is a spiny, medium shrub covered in fragrant cream flowers in summer and widely grown in gardens across its range. It establishes readily on clay, alluvium and sandstone soils and handles cold winters and dry summers without difficulty. If you garden in the Bathurst, Lithgow or Oberon region, planting blackthorn in an open position away from intensive foot traffic that disturbs the ants is a direct contribution to this butterfly's recovery. The rest of Australia can grow it too: blackthorn is an exceptional pollinator plant for native bees regardless of where you are.
At a glance
-
01Mugga ironbark (Eucalyptus sideroxylon)
For the regent honeyeater · NSW, VIC, southern QLD -
02Yellow gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon)
For the swift parrot · VIC, SA, southern NSW -
03Black sheoak (Allocasuarina littoralis)
For the glossy black cockatoo · QLD, NSW, VIC -
04Manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis)
For the greater glider · VIC, southern NSW, eastern SA -
05Wallaby grass (Rytidosperma species)
For the golden sun moth · ACT, southern NSW, northern VIC -
06Banksia species
For the eastern pygmy possum · Eastern Australia, TAS -
07Candle banksia (Banksia attenuata)
For Carnaby's black cockatoo · Southwestern WA -
08Peppermint (Agonis flexuosa)
For the western ringtail possum · Southwestern WA -
09Cockatoo grass (Alloteropsis semialata)
For the Gouldian finch · NT, northern WA, far north QLD only -
10Blackthorn (Bursaria spinosa)
For the Bathurst copper butterfly · Bathurst, Lithgow, Oberon region
None of these plants will single-handedly reverse a species decline. But the cumulative effect of thousands of gardens or nature strips making deliberate choices about what they grow is not trivial. Any plant species you add to your space that is indigenous to your area will support the local wildlife that occurs there, whether threatened or not.
For more on creating a garden that works for all native wildlife, the wildlife garden guide and the berries for birds guide cover different dimensions of the same work.
keep reading
A Guide to Australian Native Gardening
How to plan, plant and care for a thriving native garden, whatever your experience level.
Read the guide →
.jpg){kind=link}
