John and Margaret Broadbent are the owners of Akania, a property located approximately 40km southwest of Wauchope. The property is a dedicated wildlife sanctuary and home, and is used for growing vegetables and fruit. Vegetation has been regenerating for approximately 35 years after cattle grazing, and despite ongoing issues with exotic weeds, plant diversity is rapidly increasing. It is John and Margaret’s intention to establish a Voluntary Conservation Agreement on the refuge.
The sanctuary covers 50 hectares, more than 40 hectares of which is comprised of subtropical rainforest and wet sclerophyll eucalypt forest, while approximately 8 hectares have been cleared and exist as grassland.
Wildlife species known to occur on the refuge include spotted-tailed quolls (Dasyurus maculatus), noisy pittas (Pitta versicolor), wompoo fruit-doves (Ptilinopus magnificus), superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae), masked (Tyto novaehollandiae) and sooty (Tyto tenebricosa) owls, logrunners (Orthonyx temminckii), wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax), grey goshawks (Accipiter novaehollandiae) and regent bower birds (Sericulus chrysocephalus).
