A majestic tract of land in far north Queensland that links wet tropics and world heritage rainforest, and contains headwaters that flow to the Great Barrier Reef, could be bought and protected by Christmas, after a conservation group raised more than $۱۹m in private donations to buy the cattle station.
Wooroora spans more than ۲۰,۰۰۰ hectares of largely intact wet sclerophyll forest and savanna woodland on the lands of the Jirrbal people about ۱۰۰km south-west of Cairns – and borders Bush Heritage’s existing ۴۳,۵۷۵-hectare Yourka Reserve in one of the most biodiverse regions in Australia.
Cassowary and tree-kangaroos are among at least ۱۲ threatened species and more than ۳۰ species of conservation significance that have already been recorded on Wooroora, which is also the northernmost refuge for koalas, and, according to the would-be owners, is almost certainly home to species yet unknown to science.
In ۲۰۲۴ a plan to clear more than ۵۰۰ha of Wooroora station for a ۴۲-turbine windfarm was rejected because of what the then environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, described as the unacceptable impact on the environment, including the spectacled flying-fox and the northern greater glider.
The chief executive of Bush Heritage, Rachel Lowry, said Wooroora would be the organisation’s most ambitious single acquisition in its ۳۵-year history to date.
“This breaks the glass ceiling,” Lowry said. “And I don’t think it’s just for Bush Heritage, but for our sector more broadly.”
Lowry said fundraising for the $۲۴.۷m to buy and manage the land for an initial five years has been going on for more than ۱۸ months. She travelled to New York during the ۲۰۲۵ UN climate summit to make a presentation that helped result in a donation of almost $۲.۵m from the foundation associated with the US outdoor clothing company Patagonia.
Given the country is a global biodiversity hotspot, Lowry said the protection “forever” of Wooroora was “not just a gift for Australia”.
“When we step in and we protect and manage country, like Wooroora, we’re leaving a legacy worldwide,” she said.
An anonymous Australian philanthropist also donated $۶m. Now Bush Heritage is appealing to the public to raise the final $۵.۳m it needs by the deadline of ۲۴ December.
Jirrbal senior elder Uncle Kurt Noble said the land purchase would allow traditional owners back on “proper Jirrbal land”.
“There are a lot of stories within the family connected to this country,” he said. “Some of the Dreamtime stories, as well as a little bit of the history”.
In a recorded interview from Wooroora provided by Bush Heritage, Noble said his great-grandmother was born on the station but that he had not previously had the opportunity to visit.
“Much of our land is under private ownership, you know, and to have access, to be able to come back and forward, has been very restricted over many years – over generations,” he said.
Renewed access would not only enable care and restoration for the environment, he said, but also for “the cultural values of our land”. Noble said it would allow “our young people to grow up with a better understanding, not only of country, but of language, of song, of our cultural practices, of our different significant sites all over this country”.
Traditional custodian and the Wabubadda Aboriginal Corporation chair, Liam Roberts, said in another recorded video that Jirrbal were hoping to jointly manage the reserve.
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“We’ve got rangers. We’ve got work we’d like to do on country,” he said.
Roberts said the station contained “sacred artefacts” along old Jirrbal trails and creeks.
“It’s beautiful camping country, it’s beautiful fishing country, it’s beautiful ecology,” he said.
“In the old days the pathways were very much running from the dry country to the wet country, seasonally, and this is a key part of country that we can’t find anywhere else.”
Bush Heritage’s head of Queensland and the Northern Territory, Dr Jo Axford, said Wooroora includes one of the region’s largest unprotected stretches of wet sclerophyll forest – towering eucalyptus grandis that forms a transition zone between ancient wet tropics rainforest and seasonally dry savannah woodlands.
From its neighbouring reserve at Yourka, Bush Heritage had been actively seeking to acquire the station since ۲۰۱۰ because it provides the “missing piece” in a ۴۲۹,۰۰۰-hectare nature corridor that runs up to Cape York.
“The amazing thing about Wooroora is that it’s this long, narrow property – if you look at a map, Wooroora itself is almost like a key,” Axford said.
Wooroora rises to about ۱,۰۰۰m above sea level, but falls to ۶۶۰m in ۱۰km, which Axford said creates a diverse mosaic of habitat that will allow threatened species such as the critically endangered magnificent brood frog to find refuges and hopefully adapt to a changing climate.
This “really unusual” topography makes Wooroora one of the only places on Earth home to both the rainforest dwelling southern cassowary and the plains roaming emu, where Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo clamber through canopies near koalas, she said.
But Axford said she is confident the station also harboured undescribed species.
“Nobody’s looked at the invertebrates, nobody has gone into all those gullies and valleys, these huge rhyolite outcrops,” she said.
“I’ve had the advantage of being able to fly over it in a chopper – and you just know there must be so many hidden secrets in there”.
