We had owned a working farm in Dunolly prior to purchasing Maldon. It comprised of a mount, hills and flat areas. We decided to covenant the 240ha of bush and grasslands and keep the remaining arable 162ha for cropping and grazing.

We carried out extensive revegetation on this property and feel immensely proud of the results today. We did however discover travel and this property became too high maintenance for us. This was a big factor in purchasing Maldon as it was natural and posed little management.

Rare and endangered species

In Maldon/Walmer we have large old trees including Eucalyptus goniocalyx, E. macrorhyncha and E. polyanthemos. There is also a high diversity of native forbs, lilies and orchids.

Fauna includes Square-tailed Kite, Powerful Owl, Swift Parrot, Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, Speckled Warbler, Brush-tailed Phascogale (pictured right) and Short-beaked Echidna.

In Walpeup we are treated to visits from Regent Parrots, Southern Scrub-robins and Hooded Robins.

Restoration works

In Maldon/Walmer we attempted some erosion control, laying down logs, planting, filling small points with discarded vegetation, all with limited success. Planting around house area has yielded good results.

We have undertaken planting with the assistance of Connecting Country on the Walmer block, and removal of weed species (blackberry, gorse, olive trees, wheel cactus) with good success.

For the African Weed Orchid we have been poisoning, digging out and pulling off heads of with nil success so far. We have not done anything major at Walpeup except for a little weed and pest animal control.