Elena and Andrei Swegen are the owners of Burraduc, a property situated in Bungwhal, approximately 120km northeast of Newcastle, New South Wales. One of the oldest rural holdings in The Great Lakes, Burraduc is now an organic and environmentally friendly buffalo dairy farm. Elena and Andrei support biodiversity on the property with predator-friendly management and habitat conservation, along with educational wildlife tours. They intend to maintain the property as a sustainable farm, wildlife sanctuary and educational site.
Burraduc spans approximately 40 hectares, with frontage to the shores of Myall Lake to the south. The property is comprised of open grazing paddocks, eucalypt woodlands and remnant littoral rainforest. The south side of the property is composed of wetlands which lead to Russells Bay and the Myall Lakes system, a wetland of international significance protected under the Ramsar Convention.
A vast array of wildlife is found on the property including dingoes (Canis lupus dingo), long-nosed bandicoots (Perameles nasuta), feathertail gliders (Acrobates pygmaeus), sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), microbats, diamond pythons (Morelia spilota) and lace monitors (Varanus varius).
A variety of birdlife is also present including pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus), white-bellied sea eagles (Haliaeetus leucogaster), tawny frogmouths (Podargus strigoides), eastern barn owls (Tyto javanica), noisy friarbirds (Philemon corniculatus), rainbow lorikeets (Trichoglossus moluccanus), regent bowerbirds (Sericulus chrysocephalus), turquoise parrots (Neophema pulchella), superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus), grey butcherbirds (Cracticus torquatus), egrets and honeyeaters.