October Monthly Meeting – Speaker: Carolyn Larcombe “Wandiyali~Environa Wildlife Sanctuary”
2 October @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Landowner, Carolyn Larcombe, has a fascinating and important story to tell.
Her property in the Googong area near Canberra has been in the Larcombe family for three generations. Now, 300 ha of the southern section has become a private reserve, which includes two Biodiversity Stewardship sites and a Conservation Agreement site registered on the property’s title. The process has also involved the setting up of the Wandiyali Restoration Trust to manage the critically endangered ecological communities, the building of a 10 km fence to exclude feral cats and foxes as part of a safe haven project with funding from the Federal Government’s Environmental Restoration Fund, and since December 2024, a collaborative partnership between the the Larcombe family and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Under the 10-year agreement, AWC will help shape conservation plans for the sanctuary, including a strategy for restoring locally extinct species. Small mammals including bandicoots, antechinus, bettongs, quolls, and several species of native rodents, as well as threatened frogs, will be among the species to be assessed as candidates for reintroduction. The project will also support important research into the factors that contribute to successful species reintroductions.
Wandiyali consists of open woodland and grassland communities, including a significant patch of critically endangered Box Gum Grassy Woodlands, and importantly provides both east west and north south connectivity across the landscape, linking a corridor between Canberra and the coast and protecting an upper stretch of Jerrabomberra Creek. Significant conservation work has already been undertaken to help native vegetation recover and increase biodiversity, improving ecological function and habitat value, for example, ground-story for small mammals and mid-story for small birds.
The sanctuary protects habitat for threatened birds like the Swift Parrot, Gang-Gang, and Speckled Warbler, threatened reptile, the Pink-tailed Worm Lizard, and threatened plants including the Small Purple-pea. Wombats and Echidnas are common, and a diverse range of bush birds are found, including Wedge-tailed Eagles, Brown Falcons, Brown Quail, Crimson Rosellas, Red-rumped Parrots, Grey Fantails, and Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes and Scarlet Robins.
https://wandiyalirestorationtrust.org/
Refreshments available from 7pm. Mugs or keep-cups encouraged. Non-members welcomed.
Meeting starts at 7:30pm.