Thomas and Barbara Evision have travelled the world, but they always knew they would return to Australia to settle in the Snowy Monaro region of NSW.
Their search for land with the potential for biodiversity conservation and habitat protection led them to Beaureden, a property near the tiny Snowy Mountains town of Moonbah.
In 2021 they submitted an expression of interest in the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT) Snow Gum Woodlands and Grasslands conservation tender and are one of 8 families in the region to successfully bid for a conservation agreement.
“We wanted to ensure there would be funding for the protection of what’s here once our children, or somebody else owned the property, so the conservation management could continue,” Barbara said.
“The whole point of the tender money is to assist us in the management of the conservation site so no matter what else is happening, that funding is just going to keep coming.”
Protection of almost 66 hectares of land on their property has secured habitat for threatened species including the austral toadflax (a vulnerable native herb), koalas, glossy black cockatoos, hooded robins and speckled warblers.
Many trees mature enough to develop hollows as nesting habitat for threatened tree-dwelling species are also protected, and the signs for future tree growth are good.
"There's a lot more snow gums since we started our conservation management,” Thomas said.
“Many more are germinating and growing along the drainage lines. The whole health of the property has changed enormously."
BCT Senior Landholder Support Officer Adam Hook said as well as snow gum woodland, Beaureden also has areas of critically endangered natural temperate grassland.
“Originally both ecological communities were widespread in this region of the Snowy Monaro,” he said.
"The good areas that are left are most often found on private property. The BCT is keen to help landholders protect these ecological communities because they are not well represented throughout our National Parks or our NSW reserve system.”
In total new conservation agreements between the Biodiversity Conservation Trust and landholders in the state’s south-east will permanently protect 4200 hectares of priority snow gum woodlands and native grasslands.
The 8 conservation agreements cover an area culturally important to the Ngarigo people and Traditional Custodians of the surrounding Nations.
Read more NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust news.