Grey Area

As climate change, land clearing and urban growth shrink natural habitat, wildlife is migrating into urban spaces in growing numbers. This is increasing the frequency of human-wildlife conflict, as wildlife is often perceived as a threat to property and public safety. In turn, this creates a cycle of displacement that threatens vulnerable species and undermines efforts by those working to protect them. Grey-headed flying-foxes are a powerful example of this; as keystone pollinators and seed dispersers, their decline endangers not just the species itself but the ecological processes sustaining forests across Australia’s east coast. Without them, biodiversity suffers on a massive scale, and it is largely up to us to create a world where they can thrive and fulfill their ecological role.

Grey Area envisions a future where coexistence with wildlife is built into how we design our cities. By revealing the consequences of allowing fear and misunderstanding to drive our responses to wildlife in our neighborhoods, we can shift perception that the environment is external to our everyday lives and encourage more intentional thinking when it comes to designing urban landscapes, whether that be public gardens or personal properties.

The film also brings this perspective down to an individual level. The everyday choices people make about their own properties add up to shape the broader urban environment. By making that connection visible through the flying-foxes, the film aims to prompt viewers to think more critically about their individual role in caring for local wildlife, reframing it from a distant policy issue into something within their own control.

Grey Area aims to shift public understanding of flying-foxes and contribute to a future where coexistence between humans and wildlife is better understood and supported. To achieve this, the project aims to raise awareness and encourage behavior change by bringing attention to hazardous infrastructure like illegal fruit tree netting and barbed wire that injure or kill thousands of flying-foxes each year. Reducing these preventable deaths and rescue scenarios will allow wildlife organisations to focus their efforts more on proactive conservation measures like education and habitat restoration. Beyond individual behavior, Grey Area aims to raise community support for the conservation of flying-foxes across Australia. We will create spaces for local engagement and discussion by organising community screenings and making the film available as an educational resource for schools and community groups, all to support the awareness of the flying-fox ecology amongst the Australian public.

Filmmaker AJ Reid lives within walking distance of the Yarra Bend flying-fox colony, which he discovered shortly after moving to the area in 2024. Immediately fascinated by the colony’s presence in the middle of Melbourne, he joined local conservation group Friends of Bats and Bushcare (FOBB), becoming a colony monitor and assisting with rehabilitating flying-foxes. Through this work, he developed trusted relationships with local carers, volunteers and advocates, and gained firsthand insights that would inspire him to create Grey Area. AJ has drawn on these relationships throughout the filmmaking process. Close consultation with community members has helped him navigate the sensitivities of representing their work and experiences, while ensuring the film reflects the realities of those working closest to the species. His ongoing involvement in the community has provided the foundation for Grey Area’s success, as well as his overarching goal to shift public perceptions of flying-foxes.

We call on Australians to take greater care and express stronger empathy to not just flying-foxes but all wildlife sharing our urban spaces. They are a part of our cities, not adjacent, and we should do everything in our power to protect and accommodate them.