$1 million conservation project to protect threatened legless lizard

Molonglo Catchment Group president Dr Karen Williams said it was going to be "quite the project".

The developers behind Googong, Peet Limited and Mirvac, and the NSW government - via grant funding - announced nearly $1 million in funding for the project on Thursday.

The project spreads from Googong to Carwoola and Royalla with the rocky habitats favoured by the helpless critter to be restored and protected.

The lizard, also known as the pink-tailed legless lizard, is listed as vulnerable in NSW.

"The only way we can look after them is to manage the landscape," Dr Williams said.

"Looking around, that's going to be quite the project."

Dr Williams said it wouldn't be enough to simply let the lizards be by shutting off habitats.

"It's like putting a plant in the ground and not watering it," Dr Williams said.

She praised the willingness of developers to help with conservation efforts.

"To put it bluntly, conservation groups and developers don't have a good relationship," she said.

Dr Williams said the project helped create a corridor for the lizard and other native wildlife from Googong to as far as Mount Taylor in the ACT.

The group's principal ecologist Dr Jasmyn Lynch said it was "exciting but also daunting".

The project's launch was held on rural farmland outside Googong, south of Queanbeyan, with cow droppings across the ground, sheep in a neighbouring paddock and heavily chewed grass.

Dr Lynch said the group would work with landowners on a management strategy that would protect the land but still allow them to use it for grazing.

She hoped everyone - conservationists, farmers and developers - would be able to work together over the project's six-year lifetime, from 2018 to 2024.

Dr Lynch said they didn't know the lizard's local population numbers but this project would help them learn.

"There's no indication it's in decline," Dr Lynch said. "We think it's OK."

Dr Lynch said the lizard was a "flagship species", meaning it was used to promote the importance of conservation and environmental protection in the region.

She said by creating a better habitat for the lizard, they would restore the environment to a better condition.

Peet Limited and Mirvac's Googong township project director Malcolm Leslie said the company had put a lot of effort into community consultation.

"We do have a belief in sustainability," Mr Leslie said.

He said the project wasn't an offset for the Googong development and the township hadn't been built on lizard habitat.

"Most of it's been farmed pretty heavily," he said.

Mr Leslie said everyone involved had a big task ahead for consulting with the vast amount of stakeholders.

"It's a difficult job," he said.