Days Available: Sat & Sun 9am - 4.30pm (except Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day and Good Friday)

Wirrimbirra Sanctuary holds a unique place in Australia's environmental heritage. Established over 50 years ago it represents the aspirations of our environmental leaders to protect, promote and educate about our unique and wonderful plant and animal life.

Over 100 years of heritage Its formation has links going back over 100 years. The name Wirrimbirra is aboriginal 'to preserve' and it represents a meeting place of environmental leaders with interest in Australia's natural heritage and future - a future that few could envisage so many years ago. It is symbolic as a meeting place of like minded thinkers including Annie Wyatt, Myles Dunphy, Milo Dunphy, Thistle Stead [nee Harris], David G Stead, Vincent Serventy and Allen Strom - among so many others.

More than 50 years of management The Sanctuary was established by Thistle Stead and the David G. Stead Memorial Wild Life Research Foundation of Australia in 1963. It is the home of environmental education, with many students and teachers of natural sciences learning their craft in our research, training and field studies facilities.

More than 50 years later it is a warm and inviting location, providing a special opportunity to walk among pristine native Bargo Brush, just as it was when european settlers first explored south of the Sydney settlement over 200 years ago, in the area of the first recorded sightings of the Lyrebird, Koala and Wombat. We also provide a rare chance to mingle with native wild life in the Fauna Protection Area where free ranging kangaroos and wallabies can be seen along with Emus and native birds, large and small.

The sanctuary is the home of the White Waratah [Wirrimbirra White], identified in the local area and first cultivated by Thistle Stead on site.

Have a look around our new web site - then find some time to wander around our sanctuary.