Sunset Sanctuary
What is "The Block", it's our little piece of Australia to help conserve native wildlife and flora.
SUNSET SANCTUARY
This is where the story of PailsforScales Conservation all began, in 1996, “The Block” which it was affectionately known by family and friends is 40 acres of land, nestled in the quiet town of Berringa, Victoria. It was purchased with the commitment to wildlife conservation.
At the time it was barren, over grazed and eroded. In 2000 we planted 1000 trees with the main aim to bring back the Silver Banksias and Weeping Shie-oaks which had vanished from the area and were virtually wiped out, they can now only be found on the roadside reserves.
One adjoining property has also been purchased, we also lease adjoining land from the Department of Energy, Environment & Climate Action (DEECA), that runs alongside Moonlight Creek bordering on "The Block". With the main aim of turning, it into a wildlife reserve, and having our own small piece of Australia that is untouched and helping to save some native flora and fauna.
When we first purchased the land, we began cleaning out weeds and building habitats with our bare hands – with only the help of a wheelbarrow, pick and shovel. Over the years we have managed to make the work a bit lighter and more effective by purchasing a tractor, quad bike, trailers, and spray units.
The rocks from an old mine site on the property have come in handy to build habitats for snakes, lizards, and small marsupials. In 2012 the four-tier wet land project began, and we have purchased an additional property which has facilities to camp out, allowing increased time to dedicate to making it wildlife friendly.
In total the three properties, and the land we lease totals 80 acres. We have always wanted to give the property a fancy name, but it always came back to being called "The Block". In 2018 we finally decided on, Sunset Sanctuary, being in the town of Berringa, which is thought to have derived from an Aboriginal word meaning rainbow or sunset. The name seemed quite fitting as we often enjoy some very amazing sunsets.
2018 saw us begin to predator proof the property using 1.8m high floppy top fence with two electric wires outside for double protection and foot netting along the bottom so even the smallest of baby rabbits are unable to get through. In early February 2020 the fencing was completed, continued surveillance using cameras, tracking potential footprints (using sand) as well as baits to be confident that no predators were within the fenced area, after regular walks around the area to be happy there was no breaches, after three months we were confident the property was ‘feral free!’
To date we are confident there has been minimal rabbits and we have been able to rewild endangered species such as Southern Brown Bandicoots, Red-necked Wallabies, Long-nosed Potoroos, Red-bellied Pademelons, Brush-tailed Bettongs, Rufous Bettongs and Fat Tailed Dunnarts and reintroduced Growling Grass Frogs which had also disappeared from the Berringa area.
So far we have planted well over 2000 trees , trucked in tons of rocks and stacked up heaps of fallen timber to build habitat
Size: 80 acres Birds: 79 Mammals: 9
Reptiles: 10 Amphibians: 7
Inroduced Mammals: 7
