What lives here?

The plant list has a moderate diversity, however, the bird list was mostly common farm birds plus a colony of Brown Treecreepers. Because of the poor quality understorey, Noisy Miners were quite dominant.

A disused Wedge-tailed Eagle nest survived in one large tree (see above). This had been used by a nesting Peregrine Falcon. The Wedgies have successfully nested just over the boundary.

What have we done?

We undertook the first major understory plantings in 2016 with the help of a grant from Trust for Nature. We have specifically used shrubs that are good insect attractors and good for bird nesting and shelter.

Further understorey plantings have been done in 2018, 2021 and 2022. I continue to experiment with burning, grazing and chemicals to help control the biomass. These are producing some interesting results and I have learned much.

What has changed?

Since the plantings, we have seen a few little successes as the shrubs grow larger. Most importantly, the Noisy Miners have lost their dominance. Common Bronzewings have made the property their home, as have a large family of White-winged Choughs and a few Singing Honeyeaters.

This year we had three pairs of Sacred Kingfisher nesting, and for the first time, Red-capped Robins have appeared. The Brown Treecreepers and Superb Blue Wrens have also considerably expanded their range on the property. We look forward to more birds making the property their home.

Our goals

Our goals with the property are to respect the indigenous history and to re-establish some understory to bring back some woodland birds. We would dearly love to see Plains Wanderers, Emu, Curlews and Goannas strut this land again.