Before Christmas, WildArk had the pleasure of spending time with an inspirational organisation, The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC).
AWC has built a network of sanctuaries across Australia with the sole focus of preserving and repopulating our rare and unique wildlife.
Lead by a single-minded, charismatic CEO Atticus Flemming, AWC is a magnificent example of a successful conservation initiative that has a resume worthy of the great global wildlife operators.
As a long-term supporter of the AWC, we were fortunate enough to visit one of the Cape York (Northern Queensland) sanctuaries, Brooklyn, which resides in the transition zone between the lush Daintree National Park that buffers the Great Barrier Reef (both World Heritage listed areas) and the drier, grassy woodland region to the west. The 60,000-hectare property, is home to some very rare endemic species, such as the Tree Kangaroo, Blue-faced Parrot Finch and Spotted Quoll, as well as the iconic Red Kangaroo and Gould’s Goanna.
Brooklyn is an old cattle grazing property, that is managed by Andrew and Megan Francis, long-term land managers in the Cape York area. Andrew spent the day with us and explained the various and ever changing management techniques to rehabilitate the land and allow it to thrive as a natural system.
AWC manages roughly 3.5million hectares of Australia’s wild places, with a highly representative ecosystem spread across the major bioregions that ensures they cover as many species as possible — a critical part of the AWC strategy.
WildArk has gained a great deal of learning and inspiration from what AWC has achieved and continues to push for Australia’s wildlife. Please visit http://www.australianwildlife.org for further information and make sure you sign-up to their newsletter!
Thanks Atticus, Andrew and the whole team at AWC, you’re an inspiration to all of us at WildArk.