The Margaret Middleton Fund for Endangered Australian Native Vertebrate Animals

• Dr Patrick Finnerty, University of Sydney: Reintroducing endangered eastern quolls (Dasyurus viverinnus) into predator-free safe havens: a critical stepping stone for beyond-the-fence rewilding success across mainland Australia
• Dr Emily Hoffmann, University of Western Australia: Frogs on fire: Rapid assessment of wildfire impact on an Endangered peatland endemic to inform prescribed burn practices
• Emmeline Norris, James Cook University: Utilising drone-based thermal imagery to accurately estimate abundance of the endangered spectacled 

Learn more about the 2025 awardees here.

• Dr Samatha Tol, James Cook University: Do green sea turtle faeces increase seagrass seed germination and seedling success through fertilisation?
• Dr Deanne (Dee) Trewartha, Flinders University: Heat, water and lizards – understanding behavioural responses to translocation in an endangered, endemic Australian grassland reptile to inform conservation practices
• Dr Anthony Waddle, Macquarie University: Hot-spot shelters to fight amphibian chytrid epidemics

Learn more about the 2024 awardees here.

The impact of this work extends beyond the scientific community. Our publications and our conference presentations have generated media interest which in turn has resulted in public outreach and education to highlight the unique ecology of the pygmy bluetongue and the importance of grassland conservation in South Australia. Importantly, the study demonstrates how targeted funding—such as the Margaret Middleton Award—can directly enhance research outcomes by enabling larger sample sizes, improving data quality, and accelerating conservation progress for threatened species.

Dr Dee Trewartha, Flinders, 2024 Middleton recipient

• Dr Shaina Russell, Macquarie University: Rrambaŋi djäma (working together): New camera trap approach to detect bio-culturally important fauna on remote Indigenous land
• Ariana La Porte, Monash University: Early-life impacts of climate warming in endangered purple-crowned fairywrens: Studying mechanisms to inform conservation strategies
• Emma Carmichael, James Cook University: Small frogs with big problems: Ecology and conservation of critically endangered mountaintop nursery frogs

Learn more about the 2023 awardees here.

• Miss Shelby Ryan, University of Newcastle: Optimising emerging drone monitoring technologies to accurately determine population density of koalas.
• Ms Melanie Wells, University of Tasmania: Investigating the health of little penguins as a sentinel of Tasmanian ecosystem health.
• Miss Chloe Robinson, UNSW Sydney: Does mammal reintroduction reconstruct arid food webs?

• Ms Angela Simms, La Trobe University: Optimising a head starting program for freshwater turtles in the Murray Darling Basin.
• Miss Finella Dawlings, Monash University: Thermal scanners for monitoring and management of cryptic, endangered endotherms.
• Dr Jenna Crowe-Riddell, The University of Adelaide: Molecules for conservation: Can eDNA be used to save cryptic populations of critically-endangered sea snakes?

• Ms Penelope Pascoe, University of Tasmania: Quantifying island ecosystem recovery following rodent eradication.
• Ms Dympna Cullen, University of New South Wales: Predator refuges of the crest-tailed mulgara.
• Ms Jackie O'Sullivan, The Australian National University: Quantifying the ecological role of surface rocks on reptile conservation in agricultural landscapes.

Ms Rebecca Jane Webb, James Cook University: A novel conservation tool for controlling chytridiomycosis in Australian amphibians.

Dr Teigan Cremona, Charles Darwin University: Can predator enclosures support recovery of small mammal populations in Kakadu National Park?

Ms Heather Neilly, Australian Landscape Trust: Malleefowl as ecosystem engineers and drivers of restoration.

• Dr Chris Gordon, Western Sydney University: Interacting impacts of persistent fire regimes and predation on threatened animals
• Ms Emma Spencer, The University of Sydney: Does predation threaten the endangered night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis)?
• Ms Katharine Senior, The University of Melbourne: Spatial solutions for managing fire and native mammal conservation

• Tim Doherty, Deakin University – Paying the debt: reptile dispersal and extinction in an agricultural landscape
• Catherine Price, The University of Sydney – Problem predators: can odour habituation reduce impacts of rogue predators on endangered prey?
• Benjamin Allen, The University of Southern Queensland – Releasing dingoes to eradicate goats and restore biodiversity on Pelorus Island

• Donna Belder, The Australian National University—Survival and persistence of woodland birds in restoration plantings in the south-west slopes region of NSW
• Bonnie Derne, Flinders University—Investigating the parasite biota of the endangered Pygmy Bluetongue Lizard: its importance for conservation
• Elise Furlan, The University of Canberra—Improved surveillance of the critically endangered southern corrobboree frog, Pseudophryne corroboree and northern corrobboree frog, P. pengilleyi, using environmental DNA
• Ella Kelly, The University of Melbourne—Surviving the cane toad: preventing declines in endangered northern quoll populations

• Renee Catullo, CSIRO—Cryptic diversity on Cape York: assessing conservation priorities in endemic Toadlets (Uperoleia)
• Michael Hitchcock, University of Melbourne—The decline of hollow-dwelling mammals in northern Australia: hollows be thy bane
• Robyn Shaw, The Australian National University—Halting Australia’s mammal declines: a demographic, ecological and genetic approach to fire response in Australian native rodents
• Melissa Wynn, The Australian National University—Threat mitigation to support reintroduction of critically endangered reptiles on Christmas Island

• Laurence Berry, The Australian National University – Fine-scale post-fire landscape ecology of the Mountain Brushtail Possum, Trichosurus cunninghamii
• Christopher Henderson, Griffith University – How effective are Marine Protected Area (MPAs) at protecting mobile predatory fish species?
• Stephanie Hing, Murdoch University – Stress and disease in the decline of the critically endangered woylies (Bettongia penicillata)
• Wendy Neilan, The Australian National University – The effect of matrix heterogeneity on avian diversity in commodity production landscapes of temperate and subtropical Australia

• Phil Bouchet, The University of Western Australia – Characterising the diversity of mobile ocean predators in a biological hotspot and proposed marine reserve, the Perth Canyon (32oS, 115oE)
• Amanda Edworthy, The Australian National University – Causes of decline in endangered forty-spotted pardalotes
• Bastian Egeter, University of Otago – The development and utilisation of molecular techniques to detect and quantify predation on New Zealand and Australian frog species by introduced mammals
• Claire Foster, The Australian National University – The interacting effects of herbivory and fire on understorey vegetation and its dependent fauna
• Jenny Molyneux, Charles Darwin University – Understanding the role of fire in managing brush-tailed mulgara (Dasycerus blythi) populations in central Australia
• Katrin Schmidt, James Cook University – The ecological role of tadpoles in rainforest streams

Ross Alford, James Cook University – Understanding and managing threats to wet tropics amphibians: improving management prioritisation and using novel techniques to protect frogs

Kellie Leigh, Conservation Ecology – Finding the endangered spotted-tail quoll; new detection methods for declining and low density species

Teagan Marzullo, University of New South Wales – Estuarine fidelity, home-range, habitat use and energetics of stingrays

Ben Scheele, University of Canberra – Northern corroboree frog disease dynamics and recovery

Rebecca West, University of Adelaide – Returning warru (black-footed rock-wallabies) to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia

Greta Frankham, University of Melbourne – The phylogeography and population genetics of the long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus)

Michael Letnic, University of Western Sydney – How do dingoes provide conservation benefits for the dusky hopping mouse (Notomys fuscus)?

Adam Polkinghorne, Queensland University of Technology – Towards an effective conjugate vaccine to combat debilitating chlamydial disease in the koala

Qamar Schuyler, University of Queensland – Sea turtles threatened by marine debris: do they have a choice in the matter?

Arian Wallach, James Cook University & Adam O’Neill, C&A Environmental Services Pty Ltd – Restoring ecosystem function from the top

Bastian Egeter, University of Otago – Predation on Leiopelma species and Litoria raniformis

Adam Kerezsy, Bush Heritage Australia & Leanne Faulks, Macquarie University – Population genetics and captive breeding – red-finned blue-eye and the Edgbaston goby

Vee Lukoschek, James Cook University – Sea snake declines and extinctions on Australia’s coral reefs

Jane Melville, Museum Victoria – Immunogenetics of Pardalote species in south-eastern Australia

Nicola Mitchell, The University of Western Australia – Predicting the sex ratios of loggerhead turtles

• Diana Fisher, University of Queensland – Conservation ecology of the kultarr (Antechinomys laniger)
• Felicia Pereoglou, The Australian National University – Fire, genetics and the Eastern Chestnut Mouse (Pseudomys gracilicaudatus)
• Anja Skroblin and Sarah Legge, Australian Wildlife Conservatory – Phylogeography and Conservation Biology of the Purple-crowned Fairy-wren (Malurus coronatus)
• Jan Slapeta, The University of Sydney – Epizootiology of a Myxozoan parasite in the green and endangered green and golden bell frog
• Yiwei Wang, University of Queensland – Bridled nailtail wallaby – evaluating the mesopredator release theory in the context of endangered species management

• Aaron Fenner, Flinders University – Long term conservation of the endangered pygmy bluetongue lizard (Tiliqua adelaidensis)
• Gerhard Körtner, University of New England – Habitat use of the endangered spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) and its interactions with wild dogs
• Ivan Lawler, James Cook University – Locating and protecting nesting sites of Irwin’s Turtle (Elseya Irwini)
• Meri Oakswood and Peter Foster, Envirotek: Ecological Research, Survey and Education – Monitoring extinction of the northern quoll
• Arian Wallach, The University of Adelaide – Disruption of stable social structure in a top-order predator triggers the extinction crisis across Australia

• Peter Gill, Australocetus Research – Fine-scale foraging and feeding behaviour of endangered blue whales in the Bonney Upwelling, southern Australia
• Christopher Izzo, University of Adelaide – Changes in telomere length may provide a non-lethal means of determining the ages of free-living Chondrichthyan populations
• Menna Jones, University of Tasmania – Investigating causal factors underlying changes in genetic diversity in Tasmanian Devils associated with population decline from devil facial tumour disease
• Marissa Parrott, University of Melbourne – Maximising captive breeding success and conservation of endangered marsupials in the southern dibbler and dunnart species using mate choice and cross fostering techniques
• Peter Spencer, Murdoch University – Conservation conundrum: the population and epidemiological dynamics associated with recent decline in woylies in Australia
• Jessica van der Waag, University of Western Australia – How to support mallee fowl recruitment in a fragmented landscape

• Peter Banks, University of Wollongong – Wildlife general – protecting prey with chemical camouflage
• Meri Oakwood, University of New South Wales – Northern quoll – monitoring extinction
• Andrea Phillott, Central Queensland University – Hatchling flatback turtles – dispersal and swimming behaviour
• Jessica van der Waag, University of Western Australia – How to support mallee fowl recruitment in a fragmented landscape

• Terry O’Dwyer, University of Wollongong – Where do endangered Gould’s petrels forage during breeding? Assessing the potential effects of commercial fishing activities.
• Glen Gaikhorst, Perth Zoo – Sandhill dunnarts WA: Survey, ecology and conservation biology
• Sarah Pryke, University of New South Wales – Conserving the Gouldian finch – the species and the morphs
• Monica Ruibal, The Australian National University – Applying faecal DNA to investigate the social ecology of the spotted tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus maculatus)

• M Morgan, The Australian National University – Northern and Southern Corroboree frogs
• J Melville, Museum Victoria – Earless dragons

• Ross Crozier, James Cook University – Conservation genetics and ecology of the Gouldian finch
• Mark Eldridge, Macquarie University – Adaptive genetic variation in Australian island macropod populations
• Alistair Glen, University of Sydney – Competitive and predatory effects of the red fox on the spotted-tailed quoll
• Andrea Taylor, Monash University – Genetic marker studies of the endangered Leadbeater’s possum

• Shaun Barclay, University of New South Wales – The genetic management of Greater Stick-Nest Rats
• Danielle Clode, Friends of Panton Hill Bushland Reserve System Inc. – A community-based monitoring, environmental enhancement and dietary study of brush-tailed phascogales
• Karen Firestone, Australian Museum – The conservation genetics of the northern quoll
• Glenn Shimmin, University of Adelaide – The translocation of hairy-nosed wombats

• Peter Banks, University of New South Wales – Transmission of toxoplasmosis from feral cats to native mammals
• Russell Palmer, University of Queensland – Impact of feral cats on the Bilby in the channel country of western Queensland
• Jonathan Webb, Northern Territory University – Restoring the habitat for the broad-headed snake in the Sydney basin

• Jean-Marc Hero, Griffith University – Movement and habitat use of rare and endangered frogs in south-eastern Queensland
• David Taggart, Zoological Parks and Gardens Board – Cross fostering for the conservation of the critically endangered south-east Australian brush-tailed rock wallaby (Petrogale penicillata)
• Patricia Woolley, La Trobe University – Conservation of the Julia Creek dunnart (Sminthopsis douglasi)