Eleanor and John are one of the first landholders I met when I started with Council and for those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting them, they are compassionate about all living things. They are also both very humble and writing a story for this Land for Wildlife magazine, would not have even crossed their minds. A wildlife carer whom I met a few years ago referred to Eleanor as the grandmother of animals, a mentor and true friend.
When I met Eleanor and John, I visited their home in Lower Beechmont in the Gold Coast hinterland which is about 15 minutes west of Nerang. We were there to chat about weeds, specifically how the contractor was going with controlling them and chatting about ongoing restoration goals for the property over the coming financial year. As well as having a property in the Land for Wildlife program, Eleanor and John also manage their property in partnership with Council through a Voluntary Conservation Agreement (VCA) and regularly engage a contractor to carry out ecological restoration. So, I was there to see how things were going.
Once we had a bit of chat, we walked through the work zones and Eleanor shared some stories about the property. I could tell straight away that Eleanor was passionate and proud of how far her property had come over the years. She spoke about individual trees and how fast they were growing, she talked about how cleared their property was when they first purchased it and how much it had come back naturally. She showed me their little grove of threatened Mount Tamborine Zieria (Zieria collina) and a number of other threatened plants. Of course, we also chatted about weeds on the property and had a look at some of the larger infestations of Lantana and Easter Cassia.
I have visited Eleanor and John multiple times since that initial visit and over the years Eleanor has revealed many more things to me, not only about their property but about herself and John.
Surprisingly, Eleanor and John’s conservation journey didn’t start in the hills of Lower Beechmont, it began when they moved to a small canal block in Runaway Bay in the mid-eighties. It was in this home that Eleanor found herself caring for two macropod joeys – a Red Kangaroo and an Eastern Grey. You can only imagine how big the grassed area was where she cared for them – it was tiny, resulting in her making multiple trips to the hinterland each week to collect grass and browse. Their canal house and land area was devoid of any native wildlife, so very quickly, Eleanor set about creating a wildlife haven, much to the dismay of their neighbours! She planted Eucalypts, Acacias, Syzygiums and an array of other species on their small canal block to encourage wildlife to visit.
“Living in Runaway Bay by the sea, lovely though it be, was becoming untenable. We had to move. We found a few hectares in the mountains behind the coast, one of seven lots, each of which had been partially cleared by the developers, built a house and set about rehabilitating the damaged land. As well as tackling the weed problem we planted hundreds of trees, species native to the area but not necessarily local provenance, as at that point I was unaware of the importance of this”.
Eleanor’s passion has grown from their small canal block in Runaway Bay to where they reside, in Lower Beechmont. The idea of creating a wildlife habitat along the canal and planting a handful of trees grew into deciding to buy a degraded grazing property, planting hundreds of trees, watching many more grow naturally and thrive, then purchasing an adjoining property and replicating the dream by restoring that one.
Today, the properties have a combined area of 6.2 hectares, are almost entirely weed free and support remnants of subtropical and warm temperate rainforests, small areas of previously logged wet sclerophyll forests along with a small patch of dry montane eucalypt forest. Recent flora surveys revealed that the properties contain over 211 native plant species including threatened species such as the Critically Endangered Scrub Turpentine (Rhodamnia rubescens) and a very healthy population of the Vulnerable Zieria collina, which is endemic to the Tamborine and Beechmont Plateaus and not found anywhere else on Earth.
Recent fauna surveys recorded numerous threatened species including the Koala, Tusked Frog, Long-nosed Potoroo and Albert’s Lyrebird.
What I love about Eleanor and John is their passion for wildlife and dedication to caring for the environment. Eleanor has cared for hundreds of animals, mainly mammals, including the occasional dasyurid (antechinus and planigale) as well as a few birds and reptiles. In 1996 after the State Government strongly urged the wildlife carers Native Animal Volunteer Service (NAVOS) to become independent, Eleanor helped form a volunteer wildlife carer’s rescue operation called “WILDCARE”. Skip forward over twenty years and Wildcare Australia Inc., as it is now known, is recognised across Australia for its skilled team of wildlife volunteers who rescue and care for sick, injured, orphaned and displaced native wildlife. Education is a key focus of Wildcare, and Eleanor used to run and host wildlife workshops from her home in Lower Beechmont on behalf of Wildcare Australia.
“From as early as I can remember I was fascinated with plants and animals and this developed into a passion for protecting the unique flora and fauna we have in this country and ensuring that we would do all in our power to conserve the ecosystems that had survived, revegetate where necessary, and nurture back to health those habitats that had been damaged or destroyed”.
Eleanor and John’s ongoing pursuit of protecting the environment has taken them to the next level in conservation by deciding to formally enter into a VCA for parts of their properties in 2010.
“Caring for wildlife and the study of wildlife biology and botany also provided a good foundation for the restoration work required. I participated in the Nature Search program and much to our delight discovered the Land for Wildlife program, so promptly registered our property. Our conservation journey now moved to another level with the assistance that the Land for Wildlife Officers provided, such as management strategies and excellent workshops on a variety of topics. Protecting our property from future destruction became a matter of concern, so after looking at our options we decided to put a Voluntary Conservation Agreement on it, which is registered on the title deeds. There are also financial benefits for landholders who enter into such agreements.
With education, observation and experience, appreciation grows and the interconnectedness of everything, ‘the web of life’, demands our protection. Wonderful examples of this can be seen in the symbiotic relationships between plants and fungi, and plants and animals. This mutual dependence means that if one species of plant loses its symbiont, be it plant, fungus or animal, it cannot survive and this can also lead to a domino effect, and a failing ecosystem. There is another dimension for us too and that is the constant joy one experiences in seeing a new plant germinate, or an insect or bird making its living in our patch of bush, or the pleasure in just being surrounded by forest and silence, broken only by the occasional bird call or the rustle of a scurrying lizard in the leaf litter”.
Whenever I visit Eleanor and John, I’m always inspired by their enthusiasm. Eleanor never fails to share a lovely story about her most recent discovery on the property, or an amazing wildlife interaction that she’s recently experienced. Best of all, by using citizen science apps such as iNaturalist, she now gets to share her knowledge and findings with the world.
Thank you, Eleanor and John for your tireless compassion for all wildlife and the environment.
Article by Melanie Mott
Land for Wildlife Officer
City of Gold Coast
Quotes and photos by Eleanor Hanger
Land for Wildlife member
Lower Beechmont, Gold Coast