Southern Highlands and Illawarra farmers have known about the elusive spotted predator because of its love for chooks. Some farmers believe quolls have ethereal powers over the chooks that they hypnotise before they go in for the kill. What most people don’t know is how good quolls are for the environment and how important quolls are to the health of the escarpment ecosystem.

Like most predators, quolls act as a control for prey species including pests like rabbits and rats. But they are in danger of extinction in eastern Australia. Helping stave off their vulnerability to extinction are researches from the University of Wollongong’s Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions.

‘Team Quoll’ will hold a public lecture series and ‘ecowalk’ focused on their Illawarra and Southern Highlands quoll research. Both are free. The lecture will be held at Robertson Heritage Railway Station at 7pm on January 18. The ‘ecowalk’ is scheduled for the January 22 at Budderoo National Park (meeting at the Budderoo Track locked gate at 9.30am). All welcome. Details: Team Quoll Illawarra and Southern Highlands facebook page, www.facebook.com/teamquoll