Susanna Freymark
Did you know there is 1260 hectares of rock face, bushland, pockets of lush rainforest and sweeping valley views that is a wildlife sanctuary right here in our backyard?
Mongo Valley Wildlife Sanctuary is in the Upper Mongogarie area in Richmond Valley.
Australian Wildlife Conservancy senior science communicator Joey Clarke said the sanctuary is all about the brush-tailed rock wallaby.
The escarpments are ideal habitats for the wallaby and scientists have found a bunch of scats (poo).
The brush-tailed rock wallaby is in decline across many areas in Australia. At Mongo Valley, Mr Clarke said he saw several of them.
In 2021, Aussie Ark bought the land at Mongo Valley. They raised funds through WildArk, Rewild and the Australian Reptile Park.
Now the Australian Wildlife Conservancy is taking over the conservation efforts.
“Our approach will be to have someone on the ground permanently,” Mr Clarke said.
The acquisition is another step towards Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s goal of expanding its conservation impact to 5% of Australia’s landmass by 2035 and increasing the number of threatened species it protects.
Mongo Valley is located within one of the most biologically diverse regions in Australia, protecting eucalypt forest and sandstone escarpments, as well as an important patch of critically endangered lowland rainforest, Mr Clarke said.
The sanctuary is home to more than 250 species of native vertebrates including 21 frogs, 148 birds, 52 mammals and 30 reptiles according to a recent survey.
The purchase of Mongo Valley helps protect not only the brush-tailed rock wallaby but also the threatened Kate’s leaf-tailed gecko.
There are koalas at the sanctuary too.
In the past four years, Aussie Ark with its partners has regenerated five hectares of land through the planting of 26,000 rainforest and eucalyptus trees, and conducted wildlife surveys to confirm the presence of koalas, brush-tailed rock wallabies and Kate’s leaf-tailed geckos.
They’ve made a gravel road for access to the property.
In the coming months, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy will hire staff to oversee science and operations at the sanctuary.
The team will be responsible for doing wildlife inventory surveys, to establish a catalogue of the species found at the sanctuary, and start weed control programs.
We’ll be employing people locally for weed control, careful fire management, road maintenance and fencing, Mr Clarke said.
“We have funding for the next five years to do that work.”
The conservancy has received $5million from philanthropists.