Lorraine Briggs, Steven Reed, Glen Reed and Carolyn Bergan are the owners of Federal Reserve, a property situated 20km west of Byron Bay, New South Wales. The property is a residence and dedicated wildlife sanctuary, and the owners are working on the conservation and revegetation of “Big Scrub” species on the former farmland.
Federal Reserve spans 27 hectares and was originally a beef cattle farm, with around 70% of the land cleared for pasture and the remaining land comprised of rainforest and exotic species. The owners began working towards revegetating the property with native species 25 years ago. The property is situated close to Whian Whian State Conservation Area and Nightcap National Park, which is included in the Gondwana World Heritage Area.
Vegetation is comprised of remnant “Big Scrub” – lowland subtropical rainforest endemic to the hinterland of Byron Bay. Invasive weeds such as camphor laurel (Camphora officinarum) and lantana (Lantana camara) are present, along with remaining crop species from previous owners including macadamia and guava.
A wide range of wildlife is present including koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus), swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), mountain brushtail (Trichosurus cunninghami) and ringtail (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) possums, short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus), eastern taipans (Oxyuranus scutellatus), eastern brown snakes (Pseudonaja textilis), carpet pythons (Morelia spilota), lace monitors (Varanus varius), green tree frogs (Litoria caerulea) and a variety of freshwater fish, crustaceans and insects.
A diversity of birdlife is also found on the property including yellow-tailed black cockatoos (Zanda funerea), sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita), little corellas (Cacatua sanguinea), wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax), grey goshawks (Accipiter novaehollandiae), nankeen kestrels (Falco cenchroides), grey falcons (Falco hypoleucos), tawny frogmouths (Podargus strigoides), barn owls (Tyto alba), laughing kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae), noisy pittas (Pitta versicolor), regent bowerbirds (Sericulus chrysocephalus), eastern whipbirds (Psophodes olivaceus), emerald (Chalcophaps longirostris) and Wompoo fruit (Ptilinopus magnificus) doves, purple-crowned pigeons (Ptilinopus superbus), brown (Macropygia phasianella) and topknot (Lopholaimus antarcticus) pigeons, spotted doves (Spilopelia chinensis), pheasant coucals (Centropus phasianinus), king parrots (Alisterus scapularis), eastern (Platycercus eximius) and pale-headed (Platycercus adscitus) rosellas, spangled drongos (Dicrurus bracteatus), dollarbirds (Eurystomus orientalis) and eastern yellow robins (Eopsaltria australis).
