Judy Elliott
Wide Bay Burnett/Great Sandy
District 7
I have been a carer for 15 years mainly specialising in the furries and I really love the pinkie macropods. I volunteered for many years at the Moggill Koala Hospital so also cared for lots of Koala joeys. We have Koalas on our land but have not seen one come into care in this area yet.
My husband and I purchased 240 acres in the Rosedale area and had it registered as Glider Gully Nature Refuge with the Queensland government. It is a Eucalypt forest with a wattle and grasstree understorey that backs onto a large State forest. It is home to an enormous variety of wildlife including five species of macropods, Koalas, Long-nosed bandicoots, gliders, and birds together with frogs, snakes, lizards and butterflies. We have yet to identify lots of the critters that we see and hear.
We arrived from the UK in 1988 and were delighted to learn that Koalas were resident in the area (Pine Rivers Shire) where we were buying land. We planted our block with natives and registered it with Land for Wildlife. We joined (and became office bearers) of the local branch of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Qld and I later worked for their Head Office in Brisbane. We also became active members of the Society for Growing Australian Plants. It horrifies us to see all the exotic plants that people have in their yards, together with all their cats and dogs!
We sold our property and spent 12 months travelling around Australia, visiting local carers wherever we could. We designed and owner-built an octagonal house in the centre of our block. We have solar power that we are very happy with, solar hot water and satellite broadband and eventually got a phone line buried beneath our 2km drive!
I am Secretary of the Qld Wildlife Carers and Volunteers group based in Bundaberg. I am also Editor of RnR QWRC’s newsletter. I would like to meet (or at least be able to contact) the carers resident in District 7 who I represent. I am happy receiving phone calls or emails from other carers.
Do you have an item to submit for inclusion in the RnR newsletter.