Rainforest habitat at Barrine Park Nature Refuge has been expanded to support threatened species including the Lumholtz Tree-kangaroo.

Lumholtz Tree-kangaroo

The Atherton Tablelands is a fertile plateau located in Far North Queensland that was once covered in tropical rainforest. Clearing for agriculture began in the late 19^th century and this has removed 50% of the rainforest. The remaining rainforest is broken up into small fragments, creating challenges for wildlife to travel across the landscape.

The Lumholtz Tree-kangaroo spends most of its life in the rainforest canopy. They can travel across open ground, however, this is difficult and they are vulnerable to attacks by domestic dogs. Due to habitat loss and fragmentation, the Lumholtz Tree-kangaroo is now listed under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act as Near Threatened. Planting trees provides a direct benefit to the Lumholtz Tree-kangaroo as they are arboreal folivores (browsers), eating the leaves of tropical rainforest plants.

In 2021 and 2022 we provided funding and support for the team at Rainforest Reserves Australia who have now reported the establishment of 10,000 trees covering approximately 3 hectare of land. The trees are now at a care and maintenance stage and will be looked after by Rainforest Reserves Australia. 

Some of the successful tree planting on the Atherton Tabelands

The project involved: 

• Propagating 5,000 trees in the nursery.
• Removing weeds from the tree planting site.
• Planting 10,000 rainforest trees.
• Then caring for the trees to ensure they survive. This involves eliminating competition by removing weeds that germinate on the site.

The site where the trees are established is the Barrine Park Nature Refuge which is managed by the non-profit organisation, Rainforest Reserves Australia. This is helping to establish a corridor between the Lake Barrine section of the Crater Lakes National Park and Wooroonooran National Park. 

This project is part of our ongoing efforts to restore rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands on land where clearing has occurred in the past. Our current project is Restoring Cloud Forest on the Atherton Tablelands by planting another 11,900 tress. See the project here.  

Thank you to our donors who chose to support this project.

Linking Crater Lakes National Park and Wooroonooran National Park.

Thank you to Steven Nowakowski Panoscapes for the pictures on this page.