Earthcare St Kilda’s work began in 1986, when a small group of dedicated researchers started monitoring the Little Penguin colony on the St Kilda breakwater. As the colony grew and attracted more visitors, those early researchers realised greater care and public education were needed, and they began guiding on weekends in summer to help protect the penguins from disturbance. By 1989, increasing community concern for the colony’s welfare had brought local residents and volunteers together, laying the foundations for Earthcare St Kilda as an organised conservation group. Their collective efforts ultimately contributed to the St Kilda Breakwater being declared a Wildlife Management Cooperative Area in 1992. What began as a grassroots response to a vulnerable urban colony has since evolved into a respected volunteer-led organisation dedicated to safeguarding St Kilda’s coastal environment.