Peter Kontis and Claire Cooper are the owners of Riversleigh Wildlife Refuge, a property located approximately 20km south east of Canberra. The property is a dedicated wildlife sanctuary and home, and it is Peter and Claire’s intention to continue to maintain and conserve the native vegetation and local environment of the property to further enhance the sanctuary, and to encourage and support the growing populations of wildlife.
The sanctuary covers 1.2 hectares of semi-rural residential land adjoining the Queanbeyan River Reserve corridor, and is less than 1km from the Great Escarpment of the Great Dividing Range. The property is partly comprised of Box Gum Woodland with dominant species including eucalypts such as yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora), red box (Eucalyptus polyanthemos), red stringybarks (Eucalyptus macrorhyncha), and brittle gums (Eucalyptus mannifera).
Examples of wildlife species known to be found on the property include squirrel (Petaurus norfolcensis) and sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus), swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus), brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus), sulphur-crested (Cacatua galerita), gang-gang (Callocephalon fimbriatum) and black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus spp.), brown (Pseudonaja textilis) and red-bellied black (Pseudechis porphyriacus) snakes, tawny frogmouths (Podargus strigoides) and various parrots and honeyeaters.
