Jordy Groffen stated; “It was great to see the interest in the wildlife. The girls were not so keen on checking the traps when there were spiders or centipedes in them. But they loved the frogs and little skinks”. They also had a first-hand experience with the devastation and impact the invasive cane toads can have on the native wildlife after we found two dead freshwater crocodiles. Subsequent stomach contents analysis (all involving the students) unfortunately were unable to confirm the conclusion that cane toads were responsible for their deaths.

The President and Founder of KTB Lee Scott- Virtue stated; “Going out on biodiversity surveys with scientists like Jordy Groffen, helps our young people, indigenous and non- indigenous, to become more familiar with the wildlife and to learn about impacts introduced feral animals such as the cane toad, can do to native wildlife. They also learn why community efforts make a difference, why it is important to toad bust and how to differentiate between a cane toad and a native frog.

These field experiences are important and our government should be more focussed on the valuable education experience young people have when they have the opportunity to experience field trips with Animal scientists such as Jordy Groffen. These experiences are unique”.

The Halls Creek Youth Centre personal has stated they will start weekly toad busts around Halls creek in the New Year as one of their activities to educate other community members. They have advocated they will do their best to reduce cane toad numbers by attacking all life cycles of the cane toad to help the wildlife to adapt to the cane toad invasion.

The Kimberley Toad Busters hard copy book “10 Years of community efforts in fighting an Alien Invasion” was launched on the 4th of December. Josie Farrer gave a superb opening welcome to the Kimberley Toad Busters at the book launch in the Kununurra Library.

It was a great evening and people who had contributed to the book gave a short talk on their involvement with many humorous anecdotes. Montana Ahwon, one of our youngest and longest toad busters, an environmental award winner and Junior Toad Buster leader extraordinaire, provided a delightful insight into how it felt to go toad busting as a youngster, and the responsibility of being a toad buster leader and environmental award winner. It was a timely reminder of how much toad busting does mean to young indigenous youth.

Kimberley icons such author Norma Wainwright and Ian Petherick provided a brief insight into forthcoming local publications for 2016. KTB wish to thank the Kununurra Library staff for their help on the evening and to Joanne Roach for controlling and acting in the role of hostess for the night.

The KTB book will be available in more than 10 shops throughout the Kimberley in the New Year.

Jordy Groffen travelled throughout the West Kimberley to drop of information brochures and folders, spread the word about cane toads, and to give educational cane toad presentations as well as to promote the KTB book.

Jordy stated; “It was a great trip and it is good to see that a lot of people are worried about cane toads and want to learn what they can do before toads arrived and also once toads do arrive”. A big part of the educational presentation Jordy gave in Broome and Halls creek was about educating people on the differences between native frogs and cane toads. Critical also in the KTB education program presented by Jordy Groffen was helping people to recognise what impact cane toads will have on native wildlife, their direct and indirect impacts on known species as well as the lesser known impacts on smaller vertebrates, invertebrates and food supplies. Jordy went on to say. “People seemed to enjoy the presentations; the KTB book was well received. Communities that were still cane toad free said they want to do all that they can to mitigate the cane toads impact once the toad arrives. Community efforts in keeping numbers of toads from breeding into large numbers are critical in mitigating cane toad impacts on native wildlife”.

Jordy also managed to visit the Tablelands Community and dropped cane toad metamorphs collected by KTB to Mornington research station (500 frozen toads had been delivered by KTB earlier). The metamorphs will also be used for the taste aversion experiments being conducted by Mornington researchers.