Jane Robinson and John Grace are the owners of a property situated in Mount Fairy, approximately 50km northwest of Braidwood, New South Wales. The property is a residence and dedicated wildlife sanctuary. John and Jane plan to spend the rest of their lives on the property, maintaining the land for native wildlife and protecting the block from future livestock grazing. The land is additionally registered with Land For Wildlife.
The property covers 40 hectares of bushland with some areas historically cleared. The land has naturally regenerated for over 15 years and is now comprised of eucalypt woodland and native grasslands with few invasive plant species. The land is hilly and features 1.5km of creek frontage as well as one dam. The owners plan to plant additional native trees including blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), brittle gum (Eucalyptus mannifera), red stringybark (Eucalyptus macrorhyncha) and ribbon gum (Eucalyptus viminalis).
Wildlife is abundant and includes eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus), swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus), short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus), brushtail (Trichosurus vulpecula) and ringtail (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) possums, rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster), eastern brown (Pseudonaja textilis) and tiger (Notechis scutatus) snakes, red bellied black snakes (Pseudechis porphyriacus), shingleback (Tiliqua rugosa) and eastern blue-tongued (Tiliqua scincoides scincoides) lizards, earless three-toed skinks (Hemiergis decresiensis) and eastern long-necked turtles (Chelodina longicollis). The property is also home to the rare velvet worm species Ruhbergia Brevicorna, with speciemens recorded by researchers from the Australian Museum and University of Kassel, Germany. Jane and John’s refuge is also likely to provide habitat for gliders and bandicoots, but in the past year none have been spotted.
A diverse array of birdlife is also present including wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax), laughing kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae), goshawks, eastern spinebills (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris), weebills (Smicrornis brevirostris), bowerbirds, finches, thornbills and wrens.
