Australian Wildlife Conservancy

So we are here at Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary in King Leopold Ranges, Central Kimberley

The sanctuary is 320,000 ha and the base for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and it’s award winning conservation program.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy is the largest private (non profit) owner of conservation land in Australia

The mission of AWC is the effective conservation of all Australian animal species and the habitats in which they live. Wildlife matters and the AWC have established a national sanctuary network protecting endangered wildlife across 4.8 million hectares with 28 sanctuaries.

The sanctuaries are found in pristine wilderness areas that need managing and protecting including The Kimberley, The Top End, The Central Deserts and The South West Forests.

Conservation programs include feral animal control, fire management, the translocation of endangered species and scientific research that will help address key threats to native wildlife.

The two main predators to the indigenous wildlife are wild cats and foxes. There are estimated to be over 1,000,000 wild cats roaming Australia and each one can kill on average 6 wildlife per day. You do the math.

Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary is Home to critically important populations of threatened species including the Northern Quoll, Gouldian Finch and the Purple Crowned Jenny Wren, whoops, I meant Fairy Wren.

You can find out about AWC at :

www.australianwildlife.org

Nothing is close or easy to get to in the Kimberley and today we have booked a double canoe to paddle on the Fitzroy River at Diamond Gorge. It’s about a one hour, 24km drive on off road track from our camp at Mornington. 24km doesn’t sound like much but its slow going as the terrain is very rocky.

We grab 2 paddles and 2 life jackets from reception and set off in the morning before the intensity of the sun. We finally stumble on a group of canoes on the banks of Diamond Gorge as we try to follow the white Wallaby footprints on the ground.

Jen is the bow and I am the stern so obviously I will be steering so I do a couple of donuts and crash into some rocks just to be annoying... Its so peaceful here, just us, the river, the sun, the shade and towering walls of ancient, contorted sandstone. The layers of King Leopoldo Sandstone are some of the oldest rock found in Australia, dating 1.8 billion years old. We don’t see any wildlife other than a long necked bird diving deep into the river and then popping back up looking like a water snake. If we do the bird watching tour, I can find out what bird it is.

The 1.9km trip down the the Fitzroy River takes about an hour if you gently paddle and enjoy the scenery. At the end of Diamond Gorge, there is a younger intrusion of volcanic dolerite forming huge mounds of black boulders in contrast to the surrounding orange sandstone.

Returning to camp, there’s not much more we want to do today so it’s lunch and then siesta.

There’s a 7.30pm presentation tonight about the work that Australian Wildlife Conservancy do. I know, its a bit past our bed time but we are keen.

We walk to the Mornington Station, a stones throw from camp and sit around the communal camp fire before the presentation. Ashwen from AWC is presenting tonight and he gives us an insight into in the field work they do.

Ashwen explains that fire management is a key part of their conservation strategy. Traditionally, Aboriginals would use fire to burn off and create fire scares across the land. Australian Wildlife Conservancy follow a similar strategy.

The fire scars serve to break up the land into a patchwork of habitats and new growth so that when a major fire breaks out at the end of a dry season, the fire would be isolated and less invasive. In turn, the fires would leave behind pockets of habitat that the wildlife can survive on.

Also for critically endangered species, AWC use translocation. They have acquired a number of wilderness areas and have built special 3m fenced areas some 45km long to keep predators like cats and foxes out. They then reintroduce via translocation a species like the large Bilbi into the protected wilderness and watch their populations grow.

The work they do is critically important and quite inspirational as Australia has lost 31 mammal species though extinction since European settlement.Читать далее