Twilight Tour

On Tuesday night we attended a night walk at Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary with Cath, Aoife and Carolyn. Since the early 1800's woodlands have been cleared and altered for wheat and sheep farming. This change in habitat and the introduction of foxes, cats and rabbits has resulted in many species of bird and small mammals becoming locally extinct.


Located on the northern boundary of ACT/NSW border, Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary encloses an area of 485 hectares with an 11.5km feral proof fence which was officially closed in 2009. Work then began on eradicating the feral animals. In providing a safe haven in a healthy box-gum woodland environment, the reintroduction of native animals began.

In 2012 Eastern Bettongs were released into the Sanctuary and this marked the first time in a century that this species was living in the wild on mainland Australia.





The Eastern Quoll was reintroduced in 2016 after a 50 year absence from the local area and a few of the females who didn't manage to escape bred within the first few months.





A total of 11 Bush Stone Curlews were released in 2011 and after the initial disappointment of losing a few, the first Bush Stone Curlew was born that same year! Individual Bush Stone Curlews had not been sighted in the Canberra region since the 1970's.



Various groups of Honours and PhD students from ANU have been tracking and studying the Brown Treecreeper, a flock of 43 were released in 2009 as well as a group of New Holland Mice that were reintroduced in 2012/2013.

Yet to be released pending the assessment of reintroduction of other species include the Southern Brown Bandicoot and the Rosenburg's Monitor.

Anyway back to the twilight tour... we began as the sun was setting. Our guide, an ecologist and a volunteer handed out torches excellent for spot lighting the nocturnal animals we were all hoping to see!

The group was large with quite a few kids and it soon became obvious despite the pleading from the guide for the kids to be quieter,  that many of the animals would be making tracks as they heard us approach. Nevertheless the guide had a wealth of knowledge and was able to provide an interesting insight to the Sanctuary set up, aims as well as the fauna and flora inside. Ella was glued to her side, volunteering answers to any question asked and soaking up all the information on offer. Katy was making sure she was not too far away from the safety of an adult's hand!

The walk looped around taking nearly 2 hours, so another late night for us! Although it was disappointing not to see a quoll (or two) we were happy to see a few bettongs bouncing through the scrub. It would be lovely to do this walk again with a smaller and quieter group.