Gavin and Robyn Smith are the owners of The Garden of Appreciation, a property located approximately 100km northeast of Port Augusta, South Australia. The property is a dedicated wildlife sanctuary used for wildlife rehabilitation, education, recreation and tourism, and it is Gavin and Robyn’s intent to continue their rehabilitation efforts on the sanctuary, which include revegetation, habitat building and allowing regeneration to take place. The Garden of Appreciation is also registered as a Planet Ark National Tree Day property.
The sanctuary covers 6 hectares of disused cropping land that has undergone approximately three years of revegetation and regeneration work, with regeneration species including various spear grasses (Austrostipa spp.), three species of Senna, numerous saltbush species, and native apricot (Pittosporum angustifolium).
Wildlife species for which the The Garden of Appreciation is known to provide habitat include meat ants (Iridomyrmex purpureus), golden orb (Nephila spp.) and redback (Latrodectus hasseltii) spiders, wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax), brown hawks (Falco berigora), galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla), blue-tongued lizards (Tiliqua spp.), magpies (Cracticus tibicen), western grey kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus), emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae), and various small bush birds, geckos, and snakes.
