Gerrit de Bruyn and Barbara de Bruijn are the owners of Boonooloo, a property situated in Speewah, approximately 30km northwest of Cairns, Queensland. The property is a home and hobby farm, with several horses, cattle and poultry. Gerrit and Barbara also use the land for permaculture, gardening and conservation. Boonooloo has been registered with Land for Wildlife for 20 years and is a Frog Friendly Property. The owners are also currently seeking protection for the land through a Voluntary Declaration.
Boonooloo spans 1.96 hectares on a residential block close to the Speewah Conservation Park and Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, forming part of a wildlife corridor to Barron Gorge National Park. It features a homestead on the top of a ridge at 460 metres above sea level, sloping down to the northern boundary. Approximately one-third of the block is comprised of high-quality remnant mesophyll vine forest, housing a wide range of threatened floral species and essential habitat for southern cassowaries.
Vegetation species include hard milkwood (Alstonia muelleriana), red tulip oak (Argyrodendron peralatum), figs (Ficus spp.), Cadaghi (Corymbia torelliana), Kuranda satinash (Syzygium kuranda), Calamus and Dianella.
The property provides habitat for a wide range of wildlife, including southern cassowaries (Casuarius casuarius), agile wallabies (Notamacropus agilis), black and brown dingoes (Canis dingo), red-legged pademelons (Thylogale stigmatica), sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), bats (including microbats), brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), lace monitors (Varanus varius) and rufous bettongs (Aepyprymnus rufescens), as well as a range of native mice, rats, birds, insects, lizards and frogs.
