Bush Heritage bids to shield Queensland's rare wildlife corridor
Bush Heritage Australia is raising $5.3 million to buy a station that would create a 429,000-hectare conservation corridor.
Bush Heritage Australia wants to buy Wooroora. This is a cattle station in Far North Queensland near the World Heritage-listed wet tropics.
The cost is $24.7 million. This includes five years of management.
The 20,000-hectare property sits between Yourka reserve and the Koombooloomba and Tully Falls national parks. It creates a vast 429,000-hectare wildlife corridor.
About 98 per cent of the property's bushland remains intact despite its agricultural use. The land supports rare species.
These include northern magnificent brood frogs, tree kangaroos, cassowaries and koalas. They occur together in this area.
This is not normal. Management will involve removing cattle, controlling feral animals and restoring natural fire cycles.
A nearby Bush Heritage property recently found a new fungus species. This shows the scientific value of protecting intact ecosystems in the region.
- 20,000 hectares
- Property size
- 429,000 hectares
- Conservation corridor
- About 98 per cent
- Bushland intact
Why it mattersProtecting this corridor would save some of Australia's rarest wildlife. It would protect the largest unprotected section of wet sclerophyll forest in the region. This forest is increasingly threatened.
AustraliaThe purchase would secure a critical Queensland wilderness area that supports animals found nowhere else on Earth and feeds water systems flowing to the Great Barrier Reef.
Corroborated bytheage.com.au·watoday.com.au
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 4 h ago
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