News & Events

A new partnership between Rainforest Reserves Australia and the Rainforest 4 Foundation will create new rainforest protected areas in Queensland.

Barrine Park Nature Refuge - Linking up Lake Barrine National Park and Wooroonooran National Park on the left

Barrine Park Nature Refuge - Linking up Lake Barrine National Park and Wooroonooran National Park on the left


Rainforest Reserves Australia was established as a non-profit organisation to purchase, restore and protect rainforest habitat which is a perfect alignment with the Rainforest 4 Foundation. In February 2020 the founders of the two non-profit organisations met to discuss the opportunity to establish new protected areas for conservation. They’ll now work together to purchase and protect land in new reserves.

Rainforest Reserves Australia has previously created the Barrine Park Nature Refuge (15 hectares) and the Rock Road Wildlife Corridor (120 hectares) on the Atherton Tablelands. These protected areas provide habitat for Cassowaries, Musky Rat-kangaroos the Lumholtz Tree-kangaroo. The Barrine Park Nature Refuge also hosts the Tablelands Cassowary Rehabilitation Centre. While they have their sights set on further land acquisitions nearby, Rainforest Reserves Australia also sees the potential to create new rainforest reserves in Queensland and will now work with Rainforest 4 Foundation to achieve that goal.

Updates on our most recent inmates and news.

Kuranda Hercules Returns

Hercules returns a bit the worse for wear but alive after being hit by a car at 100km/h. Hercules, a 3 year old male from Kuranda, lived up to his name with a herculean will to survive after nearly losing an eye, lots of feathers and skin and being battered and bruised. It was definitely a touch and go rescue with personnel from the Department of Environment and Science (DES) on the scene promptly. He has been sighted since returning back to his own country area and we would urge all motorists to be vigilant for these locals.

Fundraising Efforts

Rainforest Reserves is hoping to extend and thicken the rainforest areas around the Tableland Cassowary Facility with some land acquisition. We are therefore embarking on some fundraising efforts and will be meeting with Kelvin (Need surname) next week to come up with some BIG ideas. Carolyn and Phil Emms and Belinda Bogart manned a stall at the Atherton Plant Sale weekend recently, but we will need to be raising serious dollars to purchase the land. Carolyn and Phil have once again demonstrated their philanthropy with their Lake Barrine BnB used as a fund-raising venture with all profits utilised for weed control and tree planting at the Tableland Cassowary facility.

Tree planting

We have been busy working on extending the rehabilitation area by re-foresting areas where cassowaries may be released in the future. Earlier this year, during our wet season, we achieved extensive planting with the help of TREAT and other volunteers. The trees are growing steadily and some weed control is about to be accomplished in the near future. 

Grande grows

Grande celebrated her first birthday this week in the Tableland Cassowary Facility. After being rescued as a very tiny stripey and nursed patiently by Ingrid at the Garners Beach Facility, she was paired with a young orphaned emu. The pair transitioned to the Tablelands and kept each other warm for a few months before the emu found a new home in a zoo. (He couldn’t be returned to an unknown flock and be accepted.) Grande is learning to forage for herself but she is still to meet her milestones before being released as an adult cassowary into the wild. Research demonstrates that adult birds have a much higher chance of survival in the wild than juveniles. Grande is being monitored with cameras throughout the facility so she has minimal human contact and can be observed in a natural habitat.

Kuranda Hercules Returns

Hercules returns a bit the worse for wear but alive after being hit by a car at 100km/h. Hercules, a 3 year old male from Kuranda, lived up to his name with a herculean will to survive after nearly losing an eye, lots of feathers and skin and being battered and bruised. It was definitely a touch and go rescue with personnel from the Department of Environment and Science (DES) on the scene promptly. He has been sighted since returning back to his own country area and we would urge all motorists to be vigilant for these locals.

 

Key to Cassowary conservation is you, you can help by assisting us, to increase the natural habitat, reduce road fatalities, having responsible dog owners which removes dogs as a threat.

No matter how big or small, your support is all we need!

Come along to World Cassowary Day, meet some great people, learn about what you can do to help the environment today.

To ensure the Cassowaries existence for future generations, come along and join in the celebrations and learn what you can do to help protect and ensure this birds survival. The Southern Cassowary is a keystone species, so if we get it right for this bird, we get it right for a lot of other species that live alongside the Cassowary in the forests of the Wet Tropics.

For more information about the World Cassowary Day, click the button below.

As education is a vital part of recognising the importance of habitat and wildlife preservation, we are pleased to announce that students from Trinity Anglican School will be visiting the Tableland Cassowary Recovery Facility in October to further their knowledge and understanding of environmental concerns and care. They will be planting seeds, visiting Lake Barrine and the giant kauris, as well as looking at great farming practices which limit environmental impact.

Rescued and recovered!

On the 5th of July Bella, a 50 year old Cassowary was struck by a car and presumed dead, so the car just kept on driving.  This incident happened near the Garners Beach Cassowary Rehabilitation Centre. Luckily for Bella, rescuer Ingrid Marker found Bella limping on the side of the road with injuries to the eye and left hip. We are sure Bella is thankful for the efforts of the rescuers involved: Ingrid Marker from Mission Beach, Pat from Tropical Tully Veterinarian Clinic, Sharon and Steve from Mission Beach Wildlife Carers, EHP Senior Wildlife Officer, Sunny Wardlaw and Shane O’Brien from Garners Beach Facility. She has made a full recovery and has been released, although she hasn’t been sighted recently.

 

Rainforest Trust Affiliation and TAX BENEFITS

Some more exciting news to date has been our amalgamation with Rainforest Trust, http://rainforesttrust.org, which will assist with fundraising efforts in order to pursue our goals for providing soft and safe release for our injured birds through revegetation at Barrine Park. This partnership will allow donors to claim tax benefits for which we do not yet have permission.

Threats to cassowaries! Dogs, cars and habitat loss

Dogs continue to be one of the main causes of cassowary injury and death – and the attacked birds often don’t make it to Garner’s Beach because they are mauled in the rainforest or on farms. This means there is little evidence or data collected on these deaths. On the Tableland we eliminate 10 – 15 dogs each year and have not seen packs of dogs since we began this process. A similar protection plan needs to be examined for the remaining cassowary habitat areas with state legislation to be drafted for this to occur.

This young bird has been successfully treated and returned to its natural habitat in Mourilyan. A sad ending for our juvenile bird rescued from Topaz. Unfortunately the bird’s leg injury was not able to be cured, even with an expensive operation, so sadly we had to take the decision to euthanise it. Please encourage all members of the public to use the hotline (1300 130 372) and inform EHP immediately if an injured bird is sighted. A huge thank you to all the concerned members of the community who supported the bird during its short life.

 

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