Australia launches A$28 million project to stop invasive cane toads from reaching Pilbara after 1935 introduction

Australia’s attempt to solve one pest problem in 1935 created another that has spread across the country for nearly a century. Cane toads were introduced to control beetles in Queensland’s sugar cane fields, but they became one of the nation’s most damaging invasive species.

Now, a A$28 million partnership involving Curtin University, Rio Tinto and the Rhodes Ridge Joint Venture is trying to prevent them from reaching Western Australia’s Pilbara, one of the country’s most ecologically significant regions. The project will create a 7,500-square-kilometre “waterless barrier” south of Broome, between the Indian Ocean and the Great Sandy Desert.

Rather than trying to kill toads directly, researchers plan to remove the artificial water sources that allow them to survive the dry season. The Toad Containment Zone will modify or contain 685 pieces of pastoral infrastructure across six stations, creating a dry corridor that the animals cannot cross, as per ABC News and Rio Tinto.The effort is unusual because it treats water infrastructure as a conservation tool.