VIC: Wingura - Suzanne and John Brandenberger

Suzanne and John Brandenberger are the owners of 'Wingura', a property located in Walkerville, approximately 175km South-East of Melbourne, Victoria.  The property was purchased with the intent of being a residence and native wildlife sanctuary, and it is Suzanne and John's intention to continue to look after and enjoy the coastal sanctuary, which is situated next to Cape Liptrap Coastal Park.

The sanctuary covers 2.5 hectares, which aside from the residence is native bushland comprised predominantly of coastal tea-tree, banksias, white correa, bearded heath and 8 different types of orchid.  Wildlife known to be present on the property includes wallabies, wombats, echidnas, kangaroos, koalas, Eastern pygmy possums, and a wide variety of birds.

Wingura's article from Wildlife Lands 9:

Wingura is six and a half acres of coastal heathland and scrub on a rocky headland overlooking Bass Strait, located near Cape Liptrap in southern Victoria. The name is Aboriginal for 'surf' which forms the outlook of our property.  We are subject to a very strong westerly airflow being in the roaring forties, and these winds have a dramatic effect on the landscape and have sculptured the vegetation; they also create many challenges to the choice of building materials and construction methods, landscaping materials and garden establishment.

We bought Wingura in 1999 and built our home in 2002, and during that period we spent time camping on site in a caravan and got to explore and understand our property as well as the adjoining Cape Liptrap Coastal Reserve and beach. We soon realised that we are very privileged to be part of a beautiful and special area and took great care to minimise our impact on the environment, both physically and visually.

From the very beginning it has been an exciting adventure as we make discoveries that our block reveals to us. The birdlife is prolific with species such as superb fairy-wrens, grey shrike-thrushes, and various whistler, honeyeater, robin and cuckoo species, as well as Bass Strait seabirds.  Wildlife is also abundant, with wallabies, wombats, eastern pygmy possums, echidnas, kangaroos, antechinuses, koalas and ringtail possums all present. We enjoy and encourage the wildlife while dealing with associated challenges when growing native gardens and vegetables. There are also a large number of snakes, mainly tiger snakes, copperheads and the occasional white-lipped snake - when the snakes are moving through the heathland the small birds (especially the scrub wrens) become very agitated and noisy, which is a fantastic warning system for other birds and us.

There are very few weeds which we have removed and keep under control. We are very lucky as the wildlife "mows" the grass for us - our resident wombat is called "Victa"! We don't feed the birds and animals but have a lot of bird baths which are all well used. We have even seen the odd wallaby, echidna and snake enjoying the baths by lying in them on hot days!

We have only planted coastal natives, many of which are indigenous to the area, and have also propagated from the surrounding bush. We had to cage every new plant to protect them from the wildlife, with most plants able to cope unprotected once they were established.  We have left most of the native vegetation untouched, but we did thin out some of the coastal tee tree, which enabled the other native plants that were being strangled, such as Correa alba, coast bitter-bush, banksias and dusty miller, to flourish. To our great excitement we have discovered seven different types of orchids as we are learning more and more about our bush, with examples including the wax-lip orchid, and various donkey and spider orchids.

We were encouraged to join Wildlife Land Trust because like the WLT, we believe so strongly in protecting our native flora and fauna, and only by working together will this be achieved. We cannot leave it for someone else to do.