Monitoring kangaroos and penguins on Pelican Lagoon, Australia

Dr Peggy Rismiller OAM and Michael McKelvey OAM were ahead of their time when they set up a research station on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island in the 1980s.


The Pelican Lagoon Research and Wildlife Centre focused on life histories and long-range studies of flora and fauna at a time when much ecological research centred on mere snapshots of the plants and animals.

Scientists from around the world have used the centre to study ecosystems spared the assault of foxes and rabbits. Kangaroo Island is said to be a window on past landscapes. By comparing systems there with their mainland counterparts, scientists can gain insights into the impact of European settlement and predict how ecosystems will respond to future environmental shocks.

Peggy, an environmental physiologist, exposed the limitations of sporadic, short-term projects when her continuous, long-term monitoring of echidnas shattered myths surrounding the egg- laying mammals. She followed a wild population of individuals for decades to unlock the secrets of the monotremes’ life cycle. She discovered that the age of sexual maturity for females, previously thought to be one to two years, was seven to 12 years. And they bred only once every three to five years. They were previously thought to have an annual breeding cycle.

Now Peggy and Michael are working with colleagues on a succession plan for research on organisms that will outlive them.

“We’re looking at life history, and many of the plants and animals we’re studying have life cycles of 50 to 60 years,” explains Michael, a biologist who has been monitoring penguins on the island for 30 years. “We have to think about sustainable research,” he says, adding that it will take three generations of biologists to complete some programs.

Peggy and Michael have advanced the understanding of Australia’s unique wildlife through their own research and their establishment of research infrastructure at Pelican Lagoon. They received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2006 for service to science.