Paul and Lyn Obern are the owners of Roo Corner, a property located near Nowra. The property is a dedicated wildlife sanctuary used for wildlife rehabilitation and as a wombat refuge. It is Paul and Lyn’s intent to continue to protect the native species on and around the property, and to raise and rehabilitate the orphaned, injured and sick wombats that come into their care.
Roo Corner covers approximately 2.02 hectares, of which 0.8 hectares consists of gardens planted with native vegetation and the remaining 1.2 hectares are a wildlife corridor of natural bushland, eucalypt woodlands and native grasslands. Vegetation includes old growth scribbly gums (Eucalyptus haemastoma) which provide important hollows and habitat for parrots, apple gums (Angophora costata), cedars (Toona ciliata), wattles (Acacia spp.) which attract pollinators including birds and bats, lomandras (Lomandra spp.), native grasses, mosses and sedges.
Wildlife known to inhabit the property includes bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus) – with more than forty known burrows – eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus), swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), red-necked wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus), short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus), red-bellied black snakes (Pseudechis porphyriacus), carpet pythons (Morelia spilota), blue-tongued lizards (Tiliqua scincoides scincoides) and lace monitors (Varanus varius).
The sanctuary is also home to an abundance of bird life including Australian king parrots (Alisterus scapularis), glossy black-cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus lathami), galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla), white-headed pigeons (Columba leucomela), laughing kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae), Australia magpies (Cracticus tibicen), yellow robins (Eopsaltria australis), Sulphur-crested (Cacatua galerita) and gang gang (Callocephalon fimbriatum) cockatoos, little corellas (Cacatua sanguinea), eastern (Platycercus eximius) and crimson (P. elegans) rosellas, rainbow lorikeets (Trichoglossus moluccanus), eastern spinebills (Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris), wattlebirds and honeyeaters (Anthochaera spp.), treecreepers (Climacteris spp.) and finches (Emblema spp.).