Terry and Jennifer Graham are the owners of a property located approximately 5km east of Tyalgum. The property is a dedicated wildlife sanctuary also used for wildlife rehabilitation and the release of rehabilitated animals (koalas, wallabies and pademelons), and it is Terry and Jennifer’s intent for the property to continue in these purposes. The sanctuary is also a member of the Land for Wildlife program, and shares part of a boundary with Wollumbin National Park.
The property covers approximately 8.5 hectares with an ephemeral gully running along the eastern boundary and several small gullies draining the western hillside, and merging with the main gully before flowing through a culvert under Tyalgum Road. The geology of the property is classified in ‘Soil landscapes of the Murwillumbah-Tweed Heads 1:100 000 Map Sheet’ (Morand, Department of Conservation and Land Management, 1996) as Frogs Hollow, part of the igneous Chillingham volcanic group. It consists of brown earths and brown podzolic soils on upper slopes and well-drained, red podzolic soils and red clays elsewhere.
The sanctuary is comprised of two distinct vegetation communities with grey ironbark (Eucalyptus paniculata), white mahogany (Eucalyptus acmenoides) and grey gum (Eucalyptus punctata) open forest dominating on the western side of the sanctuary and brush-box (Lophostemon confertus) open forest located in the south-western corner. In addition, a river she-oak (Casuarina cunninghamiana) forest occupies a small area adjacent to Tyalgum Road.
Wildlife species known to inhabit the sanctuary include koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolour), red-necked pademelons (Thylogale thetis), long-nosed (Perameles nasuta) and northern brown (Isoodon macrourus) bandicoots, short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus acleatus), squirrel (Petaurus norfolcensis) and sugar (Petaurus breviceps) gliders, various species of snakes and a variety of birds including Wompoo fruit doves (Ptilinopus magnificus) and regent (Sericulus chrysocephalus) and satin (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) bowerbirds.
