Coonamble artist Brian Campbell’s giant bilby sculpture has found a new home at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Kensington Campus. 

On Tuesday 2 July, the Minister for Climate Change, Energy, Environment, and Heritage, Penny Sharpe, officially opened a new garden at the Michael Birt Lawn where the bilby sculpture has been installed.

The garden was designed and constructed by Regal Innovations to reflect the arid desert landscape.

Mr Campbell finished the bilby in February. In June, the bilby travelled to Sydney on the back of a ute.

Mr Campbell’s wife, Susan Campbell as well as family friend Lynette Firth accompanied Brian to the opening.

The sculpture is made of recycled wire netting and is part of the Wild Desert Project to reintroduce locally extinct mammals to a part of the Sturt National Park near Milparinka in far west NSW. 

Mr Campbell said the 200-kilo heavy sculpture took him around four months to make.

He made around a dozen sculptures of netting since 2016.  

PHOTO: Brian’s bilby in its new home in Kensington, Sydney. 

In 2021, Mr Campbell completed a sculpture of a western-barred bandicoot as part of a trial of art work stretching from Broken Hill to Cameron Corner on the border of NSW, South Australia and Queensland. 

“I’m still learning how to do the netting, so it’s always interesting. You change things as you go,” Mr Campbell said. 

The location of the sculpture also has a special meaning for Mr Campbell. 

“My daughter Leah Campbell and future son-in-law Sam Hunt both went to that university. It’s a bit of bush going to the city.

“I really enjoyed the day and representing Coonamble, it got mentioned quite a bit.”

Thanks to the Wild Desert Project bilbies have made a comeback in an enclosed area in the Sturt National Park. 

 “This project is not only turning around the future for animals but showing us how an ecosystem approach to recovery is possible. That’s something really worth celebrating,” Minister Sharpe said. 

The project in 2020 started with 40 bilbies within a 50-kilometer feral-proof fence network. UNSW researchers say there are currently between 300 to 400 bilbies within the enclosure. 

The Wild Deserts Project is a partnership with the UNSW Science’s Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, NSW National Park and Wildlife Service, and Ecological Horizons in collaboration with the Taronga Conservation Society Australia.

“It’s an audacious idea to think that you can shape an ecosystem back to health after all the damage that’s been done in such a short period of time. That’s really what Wild Deserts is about”, said Minister Sharpe.

“This incredible statue will stand as a reminder for everyone who walks past it at UNSW that reversing the extinction crisis in our country is critical.

“Congratulations on a great opening Professor Richard Kingsford, Professor Merlin Crossley, Dr Reece Pedler and sculptor Brian Campbell.”

The bilby is classified as vulnerable nationwide and is listed as extinct in some areas.