Australia is facing a brutal new wave of extinctions, the CSIRO has warned, but there's still time to limit how many native species are killed off by foreign invaders.
The national science agency has released a report detailing what the country has already lost - and stands to lose in the future - to an army of exotic enemies.
The numbers are sobering, both in terms of ecological and financial losses.
Invasive species have played a role in wiping out 79 native animals and plants since European settlement.
But since the 1960s exotic invaders have been the dominant driver of nearly all extinctions, making them 'worse than habitat destruction and climate change'.
Feral cats are behind a wave of extinctions, with a new study finding bushfires create the perfect killing fields (above, cat with a galah)
Australia is spending an estimated $25 billion a year - conservatively - dealing with alien species, from agricultural impacts to eradication and control efforts.
However, that's expected to increase up to six-fold every decade, meaning the annual bill could hit $150 billion a year by 2031.
CSIRO scientist and report co-author Andy Sheppard says Australia is facing a 'sliding doors moment' on invasive species that will profoundly effect what happens to native ones.
He says a truly national plan is needed, one that combines world-class biosecurity controls to keep new pests out with cutting-edge technologies to detect, track, trace and suppress the ones already here.
Huge feral cat carries a dead sand goanna in its mouth in Australia's rugged Simpson Desert (above)
There's also an opportunity to turn Australians into citizen scientists who can help track invaders with their smartphones, while professionals work on genetic editing technologies that could one day ensure feral cats can
