Odonata Foundation (pronounced o·dah·na·tah) is a leading Australian environmental conservation charity dedicated to saving species and rejuvenating ecosystems. With a focus on working with landholders to establish sanctuaries and wildlife corridors, creating innovative for-purpose businesses, and fostering community engagement and First Nations partnerships, Odonata works tirelessly to conserve biodiversity and create a more harmonious relationship between humans and nature.

Odonata’s achievements include being foundational to the downlisting of the eastern barred bandicoot from extinct in the wild to endangered, leading the most successful semi-wild breeding program of the southern brush-tailed rock-wallaby, and undertaking habitat restoration and climate mitigation projects.

Whilst Odonata was founded as a public charity in 2017, its work commenced decades earlier at Mt Rothwell Sanctuary (473ha), just 50km south-west of Melbourne in Little River, when the property was purchased by Odonata’s founder, Nigel Sharp, in 2004.

Mt Rothwell Sanctuary is home to Odonata’s threatened species recovery programs and has been under the leadership of Biodiversity Director, Annette Rypalski, for over 20 years – alongside a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, leading conservation scientists, universities, and researchers globally.

Today, Odonata delivers a range of programs to serve threatened species, the general public, private landholders, First Nations communities, citizen scientists and values-aligned collaborators and partners.