Contact Us

To continue trapping effectively wild cats we need donations for more traps. Any volunteer willing to remove woody weeds from the sanctuary and to pile them up to allow birds to nest and other species to find refuge in them?

The Oolong Sanctuary is a volunteer-run wildlife refuge in remnant bushland on private land in southern NSW, Australia. For the history of the sanctuary please go to Oolong History.
All activities, programs and initiatives reported on this web site are financed by donations and carried out and managed solely by volunteers of the Friends of Oolong.

The Friends of Oolong is a Landcare group registered on the NSW Landcare online database and is part of the NSW landcare network. For any addresses, list of commettees, commettee members and details on the status of our not for profit association, which is also endorsed as an environmental organisation please go to the Friends of Oolong.

The Box Gum Grassy Woodland Project. The key objective of this Environmental Stewardship is to improve or maintain the quality and extent of the Box Gum Grassy Woodland ecological communities. The remainder of Dalton Park, outside the sanctuary has been selected to be in this project the management of which extends over the next 15 years.
The Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU will be conducting independent and thorough reptile, bird, mammal, and vegetation surveys on the property over fifteen years.
The CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems will investigate the relationship between native pastures, rotational grazing and biodiversity over three years.

Oolong Sanctuary has 38 Projects that need your support!

A beautiful naturally developed hollow. Unfortunately there are not many left!
There are no natural hollows on young trees! They have to be at least 100 years old to have natural hollows for wildlife to nest in. The Friends of Oolong have temporarily resolved this problem by stacking branches of woody weeds in small heaps. Birds, insects and other species nest and breed in them! See Project 31 on the Projects page.

A nocturnal bird peeks out of its hollow.
We are trying our best to restore the birds' habitat through the construction, setting and monitoring of artificial nests. They are coming back but we need more volunteers to continue this program.See Project 13 on the Projects page.

Information for schools
Our fully illustrated inventory on Fauna and Flora is a major environmental educational tool. Teachers and students in south-east NSW and the ACT can participate in the development of our program and a syllabus on education in the environment. This involves putting students in direct contact with our bush to develop awareness and concern for the environment. For details go to Education IN The Environment.

A Campus at Oolong for our volunteers!
We are planning a campus to accommodate overseas, interstate and local volunteers; Green Corp and Landcare teams, specialist groups involved in our projects and volunteers to be trained by our specialists.
Schools from SE NSW and the ACT will work on projects in the field and on assignments in the premises. We hope donations will cover costs of the installations of this very important part of the whole program for schools and volunteers.

Vermin’s Patrolling and Trapping
Dr Tony Saunders, Our bird’s specialist in his last visit in November 2009 noticed a decline in birds at the sanctuary. We have initiated an intense program of trapping with suitable baits to attract wild cats. They apparently enjoy smoked ham and cannot resist it! So far we have trapped ten wild cats just around our buildings: two very large (a male and a female) and others of several sizes. Wild cats as we trap them are delivered to the Shire Council office in Gunning from where the RSPSA officers collect them.
We need more donations to purchase additional traps to extend and intensify this program in the bush.

Support the Oolong Sanctuary
Donate now to help protect and enhance the natural environment and cultural heritage of Oolong. The Friends of Oolong deserve your support and urgently need donations to continue their programs.

How valuable is our bushland?

Dragon Fly and Pollution
"The most advanced flying machine, a masterpiece of nature, the dragonfly, but if water is polluted it is the first to disappear" G.W.D'Addario
(photo: M.Hines, Oolong)
The Oolong Challenge
The Oolong Challenge with the native seed bank is under the patronage of the Hon Katrina Hodgkinson MP State Member for Burrinjuck, Shadow Minister for Natural Resource Management. To see how the Challenge is progressing go to Project 16 on the Projects page.
Establishing Wildlife Corridors
The Friends of Oolong support the following plans with contributions to communities to reforest private land, and incentives to landholders.

• The Southern Wilderness Protection Plan 2005
  
• The Lachlan Action Plan of the Lachlan Catchment Management Authority
  
• The Grassy Box Woodlands as Bush Heritage Anchor Region
  
• The Grassy Box Woodlands Conservation Management Network
  
• The State and Federal plan for a 2800 km coastal wildlife corridor.
  
• The recognition of native vegetation remnants as nature reserves

Habitat/remnants as nature reserves and crown roads as links on private land
To read more about this development click here and browse to "Developing wildlife corridors within private properties".

"All over the world, human activity is destroying irreplaceable habitats and causing a major crisis of species extinction. Human beings remain dependent on nature to cleanse, create and replenish air, water and soil and to capture sunlight. We are biological creatures whose need for these services of nature cannot be replaced by economic or technological activity. Therefore, at this critical stage in human development, we have to protect every ecosystem and species we possibly can if our children and their children are to have the richness of health and opportunity their forebearers had. Australia's unique landscape is under heavy attack and it's fragile ecosystems threatened as never before. Will Australians think beyond the deadlines dictated by economic and political pressures and opt for action that will sustain future generations? I believe they will. I acknowledge the need for research towards the understanding of habitat/remnants linked by corridors and support the Oolong Sanctuary programs and Friends of Oolong long-term committment to conservation."
David Suzuki

Wildlife Carers Group
We support the Wildlife Carers Group and if you wish to know more about the group please click the logo and/or link to: http://wcg.awardspace.com

Rota-Loo
We have selected a state-of-the art environmental compost dry toilet capable to take care for up to 24 people in any one day: The Rota-Loo. Please ask us if you like imformation on this dry toilet eminently suitable for any bush accommodation and to save our precious water.

Galapagos Islands
Galapagos ecotours. Everything you need to know about the Galapagos Islands. Boats, cruises, yacht charters, natural and human history and conservation issues in the Galapagos Islands.
www.galapagos-ecotours.com