But the animals which call those burned forests home would have fared even worse.

Almost 3 billion animals would have been killed or lost their homes in those fires, according to a report by scientists from an alliance of environment groups.

Now the smoke has cleared, environment workers have returned to their tasks in managing threatened species, making this a good time to examine just which animals and plants are on the edge in the Illawarra. There's plenty of overlap with the Sydney basin, but Illawarra and Shoalhaven habitats have similarities, and similar inhabitants.

With information from the environment office within the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Weekender has set out to get to know a few of these a little better.

At the top of the list is the Hooded plover, which is "vulnerable" nationwide, but critically endangered in NSW.

Its name is often mistakenly given to the masked lapwing, the screechy character which is particularly territorial around soccer grounds at this time of year. The Hooded plover, with its black hood and red bill, roosts on beaches - an increasingly unsafe place for eggs.

Illawarra-based James Dawson is the senior team leader for ecosystems and threatened species with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

The department's Saving Our Species program has 69 targets in this region - 42 plants and 27 animals. Mr Dawson said a shorebird project south from Wollumboola Lake, near Culburra, was showing how some birds' habits are directly in conflict with human actiivity.

"Some lay their eggs directly on the sand - around estuary mouths," he said. "in summer when they lay their eggs there are lots of people - so our project is to protect them from predators as well as make people aware.

"It's not always about charging in an upward trajectory - at times it's about understanding where you've come from and making sure you're managing things as best you can."

As in the current koala habitat debate, there's little doubt cuteness can play a part in how strongly an animal grabs the public's sympathies.

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In that sense, the Spotted-tail quoll (pictured above) has our attention. This marsupial carnivore is about the size of your house cat and survives in the forests of the escarpment and ranges, feeding on small mammals, rodents and birds.

Environmental scientists, of course, aren't controlled by cuteness.

Programs to help this quoll have focused on controlling one of its greatest threats, the fox, working with private landowners on intensive fox control in the Barren Grounds Nature Reserve and parts of Budderoo National Park near Robertson. Local Land Services runs fox control exercises over 40 private properties that surround the park.

DPIE monitoring showed the quoll population in these areas was increasing, with over 100 individuals observed on camera traps over the past four years.

"There's some victories - we've got a number of species we've been monitoring where we've got some really good data for a range of things," Mr Dawson said.

"For the last four years we've been getting consistent increases in the numbers of animals at the site up at Barren Grounds nature reserve - and declining numbers of foxes."

There's also good news for the Brush-tailed rock-wallaby - an animal which many may not know was threatened.

Post-fire monitoring by government staff and the Friends of the Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby community group found the entire colony of brush-tailed rock wallabies in Kangaroo Valley survived the bushfires, DPIE said.

There are also six endangered ecological communities in the region - that is, naturally occurring collections of plants, animals and organisms living in a unique location. These include Coastal upland swamps and Illawarra-Shoalhaven subtropical rainforest.

Like sharks, snakes are up against it in the cuteness stakes. But the handsome Broad-headed snake, which is endemic to this area, has a vulnerability rating which means its presence and value may be redacted from habitat reports for development applications. Rarity, sadly, increases its value for poachers and smugglers.

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A cuteness bias is hardly fair to plants, of which there are more (42) on the list that there are animals (27).

Many of the plant species involve highly specialised habitats and may never be spotted by the layman bushwalker - plus, being Australian natives, they're often hardy specimens, small-leaved and spiky.

But along with quolls, it's probably in the plant world where state conservation efforts are achieving significant results.

"A number of plants [in] the Shoalhaven have got good results - Biconvex paperbark, and also the Vincentia banksia, which have gone from very low numbers to some good recruitment," Mr Dawson said.

The Illawarra Irene, a herb that grows past 2m, recorded a significant increase in plant numbers over recent years.

"Overall our threatened species and their outcomes are increasing well in response to management," Mr Dawson said.

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"[Other times] populations are stable - the objective of the Saving our Species program is to prevent extinctions and ensure we have viable populations of these in 100 years' time.

"Also some ... are still declining despite all our efforts. A majority of those are plants - and they've been badly affected by drought over the past two or three years, and fire.

But then there's certain threats that we don't have a handle on, like climate change, drought, fires and flood."

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