She was on an early morning run in Shepparton about a year ago, when she took a break and noticed the furred mammal swimming on the surface of the river, not far from where the Broken joins the Goulburn.
“It was magic, really,” Ms Reynolds recalled.
It's only in recent years that she has discovered that platypuses are active in the Goulburn.
Ms Reynolds, who runs a farm at Congupna with her husband Craig, is chair of the Goulburn Broken CMA, and said the CMA's work was helping create a healthy environment for species like the platypus.
But the platypus's status has changed to being a threatened species and is now listed as vulnerable in Victoria.
Bunbartha conservationist John Pettigrew said one of the threats to platypus habitat was unseasonal high rivers in the Goulburn River which could interfere with their burrows.
He has never forgotten an experience on the Goulburn River near a former weir when representatives of the CMA visited the river bank about 10 years ago.
As if on cue, a platypus appeared and swam around the river, apparently unconcerned at the nearby gathering which included a minister of the crown.
It was doubly surprising because platypuses are usually most active in the early mornings or around dusk.
The Victorian Government has announced it will provide an initial cash injection of $250,000 towards restoration works at key habitat sites while a further $50,000 will be used to develop a long-term plan to ensure the future of the mammal.
This follows the government’s approval of a Scientific Advisory Council recommendation to formally list the platypus population in Victoria as vulnerable.
Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio will convene a state-wide forum of experts to help support existing platypus conservation work in March.
Environmental not-for-profit Odonata, in partnership with wildlife detection and monitoring service EnviroDNA and Outback Academy Australia (OAA), have proposed a project to map the entire distribution of platypuses throughout Victoria’s waterways to inform future management solutions to reverse the decline of populations throughout the state.
In light of the Victorian Government last weekend listing the platypus as ‘threatened’ in Victoria, comprehensive data on the species distribution throughout the state is urgently required to fully understand population status at both local and landscape levels and help inform management strategies which heavily rely on accurate spatial data.
For many species in freshwater ecosystems, this data has previously been too difficult and costly to collect at a landscape level, which greatly impedes the ability to prioritise and implement management actions to reverse declines and prevent further extinctions.
Odonata and EnviroDNA are calling on Victorians to not only donate to the project but to sign up as a potential volunteer by visiting its website.
The majority of funding will go towards providing more than 2000 free testing kits to be sent to citizen scientists and the analysis of all samples for the presence of platypus DNA.
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