When three friends purchased Wallamara 26 years ago, they realised a rare opportunity to acquire freehold land adjacent to a declared wilderness national park, and containing remnant koala habitat.
Today, a conservation agreement with the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust is seeing their goal of restoring that habitat a reality.
From its beginnings, Wallamara developed as a dedicated company, The Wilderness Company of Australia, with 18 family unit holders. Peter Lloyd, one of the original owners, is now a director of the company which is focused on conservation and habitat protection.
The property, of some 2000 hectares, is located in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, and southeast of Armidale. It covers land that once supported koalas, and standing with Peter in patches of untouched landscape, his passion for protecting the land is infectious.
“We knew from a lot of records … that this was koala habitat, and the koalas were unfortunately wiped out, probably by bushfire,” Gary Swanson, one of Peter’s fellow directors, said.
Scratch marks on the trees and tales from old graziers painted a picture of a koala’s sanctuary, and Peter and his team focused on bringing the landscape back. Old tales from previous owners of the koala noises keeping them up at night only reinforced this.
Steep gorges, magnificent waterfalls and habitat changes make it a unique place fit for koala habitat. Of the property’s 2000 hectares, 1600 have been placed into an in-perpetuity conservation agreement, with three sides of it connecting to the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park. It is this connection to a protected area that the landholders hope will complement the aims of the trust’s tender.
“What's lovely is that you see a very well-connected landscape that has all of the attributes; water, protection, and all those other habitat management aspects that make it a good property for koala conservation,” NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust Regional Manager Leith Hawkins said.
“There are so many other native species and opportunities for native animals to be able to thrive and survive in this conservation agreement.”
The property’s conservation agreement was established following a tender for the Armidale and Uralla Local Government Areas designed to protect important koala habitat. The Northern Tablelands are considered a potential stronghold for koala survival into the future.
Loss of habitat is the greatest threat to koala survival and protection of areas known to support high quality patches of koala habitat is critical to support remaining koala populations. Other threats include disease and climate change.
The tender has helped the NSW Koala strategy reach its goal of doubling koala populations in the state by 2050, with a total of 1692 hectares of koala habitat in the area now under permanent protection thanks to NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust agreement-holders.
“This is an agreement in perpetuity, which meant not only were we preserving the land for our own time, but dedicating the land to conservation, for all who may come after us,” Peter said.
“Basically, it comes down to feeling good about conserving something. It's basically what a small group of people can do privately for the benefit of everyone.”