Quarry Life Award

Welcome to the 6th Quarry Life Awards

The Quarry Life Award is our unique nature based international scientific and educational competition addressing biodiversity on our sites. The competition promotes and protects biodiversity within our quarries, with the winner producing an innovative project that can be replicated across our operations for the benefit of the environment.​

For the sixth time since 2011, the award aims to raise awareness of biodiversity associated with extraction sites and is a key element of our biodiversity strategy, ensuring we move from biodiversity loss to gain.

The aim of this award is to find and recognise commercially viable projects which can be replicated for the benefit of our operations and the Group.

How does it work?

QLA 6th edition

 

Project submissions from researchers, students, local communities, NGOs and nature lovers pitch ideas for sustainable quarry management projects to be implemented at one of our sites. The winners then conduct the actual work at the chosen sites with support from the quarry team.

Participants will be awarded prize money rated on the success of the project.

A jury panel has been chosen to assess the success of each project based on our global success criteria.

This year, three QLA research teams have started their projects across four of our sites in Queensland and Western Australia.

Conserving the vulnerable Richmond Birdwing Butterfly project

The endangered Richmond Birdwing Butterfly, once abundant throughout the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Brisbane regions, is now at the centre of a state-wide rehabilitation effort.  

The challenge for this species is both due to urban sprawl destroying habitats alongside a poisonous invasive foreign species that looks similar to the Birdwing’s natural food source, the aptly named Butterfly Vine.

This project, led by Matt Cecil of the Richmond Birdwing Conservation Network and run by the Wildlife Preservation Society, will take place at our Wolffdene and Nerang quarries. The team will research and identify the location most likely to succeed and serve as a new habitat for the butterfly, with the aim of growing the Butterfly Vine footprint across the state.

The survival of the Richmond Birdwing butterfly is intricately tied to the Birdwing Butterfly Vine (Pararistolochia praevenosa), which serves as the only food source for its larvae. One of the key focus areas of the project team is to propagate and plant this essential vine, which plays a critical role in supporting Richmond Birdwing Butterfly larvae.

The project, 'Conserving the Vulnerable Richmond Birdwing Butterfly', presents a legacy opportunity for long-term conservation of the butterfly. The Wolffdene and Nerang quarries, with their strategic locations, offer unique opportunities to reintroduce the Birdwing Butterfly Vine and support a growing population of Richmond Birdwing Butterflies.

QLA 6 butterfly

The Wolffdene and Nerang quarries are more than just locations for potential reforestation, they represent strategic points in the Richmond Birdwing's recovery effort. 

QLA 2 butterfly

Establishing a robust, sustainable population of Birdwing Butterfly vines in these areas will provide valuable breeding grounds for the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly. 

QLA 3 butterfly

The quarries provide an ideal, controlled environment to grow and manage the vines. This ensures that the butterflies can lay eggs, feed their larvae and support their life cycle.

QLA 5 butterfly vines

'Bring back the Birdwing Butterfly' project is being run at our Nudgee Recycling Facility in Queensland

Bring back the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly project

The second project is being run by the Nudgee Beach Environmental Education Centre (NBEEC) at our Nudgee Recycling Facility. This project, while also focussing on the endangered Richmond Birdwing Butterfly, takes a different approach.

The project team are bringing in students studying a Certificate II in Conservation and Ecosystem to plant the Butterfly Vines. This will give the students hands-on experience while also promoting an understanding of the differences between the native and invasive vine species.

The project team are encouraging the students to take their learning back to their local communities to promote awareness, local interest and action. 

QLA 2025 1 Gaskell

In this third project, CSIRO will trial its NatureIQ™ digital platform at our Gaskell quarry in Western Australia

Assessing temporal and spatial biodiversity values of a quarrying enterprise project using Gaskell Quarry as an exemplar

The third project is being run by the CSIRO at our Gaskell quarry in Western Australia. The Nature IQ team will improve environmental insights by working with large land managers like us, by providing a digital tool to track our effect on nature and biodiversity as a result of our operations.

Their digital platform will assess the impact of our operations on nature, leveraging world leading science and technology.

Tools like this allow us to simulate potential impacts of site operations and expansions at much larger scale, therefore improving the quality of our environmental management frameworks. Some of the impacts we are assessing are eco system conditions, net impact assessment, biodiversity loss, species extinction, threatened species habitat, areas of high biodiversity value and restoration success rates. 

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