We are clearing weeds and bringing native bushland back at Skye, and joining it into a wildlife corridor. In time it becomes a safe home for native animals that came through rescue and can never be released.
Skye is two things, held on one piece of land.
The first is Bush Resto. We clear the feral olive and weeds that are smothering the gums, regenerate the native bush, and join it into the wildlife corridor it was meant to be. We start with the groundwork. Historical maps to work out what this country was, and on the ground surveys to record what still lives here.
The second is the Refuge, a home for life for native animals that survived rescue but can never be released. South Australia is the only state that allows it. Skye grew out of years in wildlife rescue, and the question of where those hardest cases go.
We are clear about what this is, so nobody has to guess. Skye is an ecosystem restoration project with a permanent home for non-releasable wildlife held inside the recovering habitat.
This is not empty ground. Within three kilometres of the land, more than 800 records of South Australia's threatened species have been logged, and the on-site survey has catalogued over 5,000 observations, more than 1,000 species and 15 threatened.
This is about the wild species that already live on and around the land. Every parcel we restore gives them more room. Among them, the Cunningham's Skink, a large long lived lizard in the rocky outcrops, and the Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, a shy understorey bird and the most recorded threatened species in the area. The fence is being designed so they keep their ground.
Before a single animal arrives, the work is in the ground. Weed affected Hills Face bushland, cleared by minimal disturbance methods and replanted with local native species. The worst of it is feral olive, a weed that smothers the native gums and carries fire.
We have worked the patch around us for years, and now it grows. We are joining neighbouring land into one connected wildlife corridor, so animals can move, breed and ride out a bad season.
Heal the habitat, and the wildlife follows.
The Refuge is the heart of Skye. A fenced, feral predator free area built as a permanent home for native animals that survived rescue but can never be released. It is the sanctuary within the sanctuary, where animals are safe from foxes and cats.
Most predator free havens exist to breed and release. This one is for the ones with nowhere else to go.
This is a long, deliberate build. We are consulting carefully before we build anything, shaped by expert guidance now rather than corrected later.
A single holding does only so much for biodiversity. The real opportunity is scale: a continuous protected corridor, from the land secured at Skye, through Lavers Reserve, and on toward Horsnell Gully Conservation Park.
We have started with the first parcels and intend to keep growing the protected area, by purchase, lease and partnership. Some of the most valuable habitat sits on land we do not own, like Mount Skye, a mountain of old gums being slowly smothered by wild olive. We would love to help bring it back.
We are at the very beginning. Skye is in its establishment phase. There are no animals on site yet. The charity structure does not exist yet, so we cannot accept tax deductible donations at this stage, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Right now the honest way to help is to follow along and stay in touch. When the structure is in place and a founding fund opens, it will be clear exactly what it covers, planning phase costs like legal advice, approvals and fencing, not animal care. We would rather grow slowly and truthfully than raise money on a promise.
Nothing here is finished. Follow the real thing as it is built.
Before the restoration starts, someone has to record what lives here now. Every dollar is accounted for.