Some people living around the Thomson and Barcoo Rivers in the Channel Country are probably quite familiar with the scrabbling sound a possum makes in the roof, and the inevitable rowdy fights that happen if another possum moves into that territory. Most people wouldn’t know that the Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula vulpecula) is anything but common now, having disappeared from most of the rest of inland Australia, and hanging on in only a couple of places like the Channel Country and the West MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs.

Early explorers in Central Australia described possums as ‘extremely abundant’ and occurring ‘everywhere amongst eucalypts that border the riverbeds’. These days possums are considered extinct in arid NSW; there is one unconfirmed record of possums in arid SA (central Flinders Ranges); and three records from arid WA (east Pilbara and near Warburton). Outside of their stronghold in the West MacDonnell Ranges, there are possibly only three other locations, where a handful of possums occur, in arid parts of the Northern Territory.

The main reasons behind the massive decline in possum numbers in inland Australia are thought to be a combination of pressures from predators (cats, foxes and dingoes), unfavourable changes in fire regimes, and competition for food plants by rabbits, camel and stock. Most of the extinctions of possum populations happened during big droughts in the 1940s and 1960s. The remaining small populations are most vulnerable in dry times.

The Threatened Species Network is keen to hear from landholders west of the Mitchell and Landsborough Highways who still have possums (or used to have them) on their places in order to help work out how well possums are doing in the Channel Country. Please contact Colleen O’Malley TSN Coordinator - Arid Rangelands, ph. (08) 8952 1541 or email: tsnnt@ozemail.com.au if you would like more information about possums.