Our five-year project on decision support for island management, in collaboration with managers in the Pilbara region, is now producing published papers. One of these, led by Amelia Wenger, is now available online. We consulted with managers and suppliers of material and services to estimate, across several hundred islands, costs related to labour, transport, consumables, and equipment. We applied these estimates to eradication protocols (packages of sequenced actions) for four invasive mammal species and two weed species. Along the way, we demonstrated that, although costs scale broadly with island area, there were significant deviations between our estimated costs and costs modelled according to area alone. We also showed that terrain of islands has a marked influence on management costs and that the assumption of constant management costs over the duration of a program is very unsafe. The data are being used to identify management priorities across the islands as a guide for regional managers.
