Matt and Danielle White are the owners of Adelwood, a property located approximately 20km southeast of Queanbeyan. The property is a family residence, dedicated wildlife sanctuary and refuge for abandoned domestic animals. It is Matt and Danielle’s intent for it to remain for these purposes, as well as to better provide for native wildlife and improve ecosystem health by removing grazing and fencing off native woodlands and native pasture areas while actively rehabilitating to restore the understorey quality of native woodlands and derived native grasslands.
The property totals 8.44 hectares nestled between Hoskinstown Plain and surrounding hills and ridges. Sedge-dominated ephemeral creeks and wetlands provide water sources for wildlife present, while the predominant habitat type is eucalyptus woodland comprised mostly of brittle gum (Eucalyptus mannifera), but also red stringybark (Eucalyptus macrorhyncha), red box (Eucalyoptus polyanthamus) and acacias. Areas of derived native grassland, as well as the aforementioned woodlands, may have previously contained Yellow Box-Blakely’s Red Gum Woodland, part of the Critically Endangered ecological community listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999.
Wildlife species known to inhabit the sanctuary include tawny frogmouths (Podargus strigoides), white-throated nightjars (Eurostopodus mystacalis), sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita), crimson rosellas (Platycercus elegans), eastern rosellas (Platycercus eximius), galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla), superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus), willie wagtails (Rhipidura lecophrys), and various other woodland and water bird species; eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus), bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus), brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), eastern long-necked turtles (Chelodina longicollis), as well as various bats and frogs.
