Peggy McDonald and Keith Pauley are the owners of Holmesdale Farm, a property situated in Lochiel, approximately 15km southwest of Merimbula, New South Wales. The property is a home and dedicated wildlife sanctuary used for raptor rehabilitation. Some sheep are run on Holmesdale Farm’s grassland, which it is Peggy and Keith’s intent to one day revegetate.
Holmesdale Farm spans 9 hectares of farmland with some eucalypt woodland still intact. A creek on one boundary features bushland on either side, creating a wildlife corridor linking to State Forest. The Pambula River and healthy riparian area also borders the property.
Wildlife is abundant on Holmesdale Farm and includes birdlife such as gang-gang (Callocephalon fimbriatum), glossy black (Calyptorhynchus lathami), and yellow-tailed black (Zanda funerea) cockatoos, bellbirds, whipbirds, kingfishers, wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax), swamp harriers (Circus approximans), peregrine (Falco peregrinus), hobby (Falco longipennis) and brown (Falco berigora) falcons, white-morph grey goshawks (Accipiter novaehollandiae), black-shouldered kites (Elanus axillaris) and white-bellied sea eagles (Haliaeetus leucogaster). Eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) and red-necked (Notamacropus rufogriseus) and swamp (Wallabia bicolor) wallabies, bandicoots, swamp rats, grey -headed flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus), microbats, sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), ring-tailed (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) and brush-tailed possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), red-bellied black snakes (Pseudechis porphyriacus), eastern brown snakes (Pseudonaja textilis) are also present, and platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) have been reported in in the river through DNA river sampling conducted by Odonata. Long-necked turtles (Chelodina longicollis), eastern (Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii) and Gippsland (Intellagama lesueurii howittii) water dragons, and short-finned eels (Anguilla australis) have also been seen.
