Biological connectivity, i.e. the ability of the landscape to facilitate the movement needs of organisms throughout their life cycle, is an essential function of a healthy ecosystem. However, for species that have life cycles that occur across very large spatial scales, understanding species’ movement needs at a sufficient resolution to inform management is challenging. The high mobility of vagile species means that effective management actions must match the timing and locations of movements. In addition, management options need to consider how landscape factors act to impede or facilitate movements at the regional or basin-scale. In this talk I will present basin-scale biological connectivity models that exemplify two iconic animal groups that use river basins: waterbirds (straw-necked ibis Threskiornis spinicollis) and fish (golden perch Macquaria ambigua). The movement challenges faced by birds and fish differ, which led to the development of different models for the two species, but both models faced the common challenge of understanding how the species interacted with landscapes at a large scale. For waterbirds, we found that the occurrence of favourable winds is critical to long-distance movement, and built models to predict the likelihood of arrival between key wetlands. For fish, the presence of barriers in the stream impedes longitudinal connectivity; our model quantifies the cumulative extent of barriers to fish movement. I will conclude the talk by discussing how landscape management can be adapted to facilitate the movement of these species, and discussing the most promising areas for further research.