This project is pioneering a new approach to understanding Australia's changing environments through continuous, landscape-scale biodiversity monitoring. By combining automated airborne eDNA sampling, advanced bioinformatics and environmental data across the Cox Creek catchment, the project is creating a long-term scientific observatory that supports ecosystem restoration, biodiversity conservation and the advancement of next-generation environmental monitoring technologies. Through collaboration with researchers, land managers, schools and the local community, it is also building the knowledge and capability needed to better protect Australia's natural landscapes for the future.
Collaborators
This project was delivered in collaboration with the Adelaide Hills Council, University of Canberra National eDNA Reference Centre (NRC), Adelaide University, Agriculture Victoria, University of New South Wales and Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary, with support from Regional Development Australia, Arbury Park Outdoor School, Mount Lofty Botanic Garden, Mount Lofty Golf Course, Tapanappa Wines and Cobbledick Produce SA
The Challenge
Conventional ecological surveys only provide periodic "snapshots" of species presence, making it difficult to measure continuous, long-term ecological changes over time. Additionally, key scientific gaps remain regarding how airborne environmental DNA (eDNA) behaves, specifically, how it moves through the environment, how far it travels from target organisms, and how weather affects detection.
Our Solution
We established a permanent, landscape-scale monitoring platform across the Cox Creek catchment in the Adelaide Hills. The observatory combines automated airborne eDNA sampling with traditional ecological observations and local environmental datasets. In early 2026, we generated the project's first bioinformatic analysis of airborne eDNA, establishing an initial vertebrate biodiversity baseline that will scale to include insects, fungi, plants, and aquatic organisms.
The Impact
Replaces static snapshots with continuous, long-term datasets to track habitat restoration, climate-driven changes, and biosecurity threats in real time. Beyond advancing eDNA science, the observatory serves as a shared community infrastructure, directly involving local school and university students in field-based STEM education while providing managers with high-integrity data to support catchment conservation.