Ken Hooper, 85, still picks up a chainsaw. Jill, 82, watches what changes on the ground. On the Edward River, 30 km from Deniliquin in the Riverina of New South Wales, they have spent more than 20 years restoring 970 hectares at Moona-Bingel. The Guardian ran the feature on 10–11 October 2026. The Times of India picked it up. This is not a government launch. It is retired dairy farmers on former grazing land.

In 1992 they bought Wirra-Lo, 180 hectares in northern Victoria, for the dairy. In retirement they kept it, put it under a conservation covenant and began the repair. Then they took on Moona (2002) and Bingel (2006). In 2018 they signed a 970-hectare agreement with the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust: the land is not to be cropped again or “flogged with livestock.” Ken used to drive 100 km back to Wirra-Lo. In 2023 they sold it to the Wetland Revival Trust to stay at Moona-Bingel.

The work is weeds, feral animals, replanting, water into wetlands, floods. The habitats: river red gum, grey-box grassy woodland, sandhill pine woodland. Red deer eat the saplings. They have seen new birds, breeding carpet pythons, native plants coming back on their own. Ken works with osteoarthritis and two knee replacements. Jill keeps the small signs.

Landcare Australia’s 2026 survey: 80 percent of respondents were 55 or older. Community conservation sits on older shoulders. The BCT pact is in perpetuity: what they restore cannot go back to hard farming. “We didn’t want anybody to come along and be able to undo it,” Jill told the Trust.

This is not a finished project. Forest takes years. Weeds return. The Trust also puts money behind the paper. The Guardian photographed them on the place, not in a studio.

Moona-Bingel is one couple’s case, not a national habitat statistic. It is a counter to the idea that restoration only happens in ministries and labs.

Image: Lepidlizard, Deniliquin, 7 December 2009, public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The nearby town, not Moona-Bingel itself.

Sources consulted: At 85 and 82, Ken and Jill Hooper are still restoring Australian bushland — The Times of India; Still wielding a chainsaw at 85: the Australians restoring nature in retirement — The Guardian.