Hugh Moore and Karen Schultz are the owners of Calosoma, a property located approximately 65km southwest of Goulburn. The property is a residence and dedicated wildlife sanctuary, and ideally the owners would like to see it permanently protected – the property’s proximity to the developing Australian Capital Territory being of concern. Calosoma is also the subject of a book entitled ‘Life on Forty Acres – A saga of Australian rural life’, which was written by Dr Barry Moore in 1978.
The sanctuary covers approximately 16.91 hectares of sclerophyll woodland and remnant grassland, with some savannah woodland and heath. Vegetation species of note include blue caladenia (Caladenia caerulea) and Parson’s bands (Eriochilus cucullatus) orchids, early nancys (Anguillaria dioica), fringed lilys (Thysanotus tuberosus), scribbly gums (Eucalyptus rossii) and white brittle gums (Eucalyptus mannifera). Two dams and an intermittent creek provide water sources for Calosoma’s wildlife inhabitants.
Wildlife species are abundant on the sanctuary, though less so following a particularly bad drought from which the biodiversity has not yet fully recovered, and include eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus), red-necked wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus), short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus), sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), brown antechinus (Antechinus stuartii), wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax), eastern rosellas (Platycercus eximius), superb fairy wrens (Malurus cyaneus), diamond firetails (Stagonopleura guttata), Cunningham’s skinks (Egernia cunninghami), spotted marsh frogs (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis), and Ictinus blue butterflies (Jalmenus ictinus).
