Patricia Kelly is the director of TJM Select Investments Pty Ltd, owner of Wilga Park, a property located approximately 25km northeast of Texas. The property was purchased for conservation purposes, with the intent of being dedicated habitat for native wildlife and used for agriculture purposes (sheep grazing). The conservation values of Wilga Park are protected in-perpetuity through a Nature Refuge Agreement with the Queensland Government.
The Federal Government has identified parts of the property as being regenerating ‘White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland‘, a Threatened Ecological Community listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999 (EPBC Act). Wilga Park boasts 86 hectares of this community registered under the Australian Government Environmental Stewardship Program. Furthermore, the regional ecosystems ‘Eucalyptus crebra woodland on metamorphics’, ‘Eucalyptus sideroxylon, E. fibrosa subsp. nubila open forest on metamorphics’, and ‘Eucalyptus melliodora and/or Eucalyptus microcarpa / E. moluccana woodland on metamorphics’ are present on the property and are listed as ‘of concern’ under the Queensland Vegetation Management Act, 1999.
Wilga Park covers 3151 hectares and abounds in a wide variety of native wildlife, including the spotted-tailed quoll (southern subspecies – Dasyurus maculatus maculatus), which is listed as Endangered under the EPBC Act. It has also been identified as suitable habitat for the painted honeyeater (Grantiella picta), swift parrot (Lathamus discolor) and regent honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia), with the latter two species also listed as Endangered under the EPBC Act.
