Marion Downs Sanctuary

Not to be confused with Marion Downs Station in Queensland.

The sanctuary is home to a population of purple-crowned fairywrens

Marion Downs Sanctuary, a former cattle station, is a 2,890 square kilometres (1,116 sq mi) nature reserve in the Kimberley region of north-west Western Australia.

The once privately owned cattle station that occupied an area of 2,500 square kilometres (965 sq mi) had to sell following years of financial hardship and a change in local government boundaries that increased the rates by 800%.[1] Phil Stoker, Gerald Adamson and Joe Batiste sold the property for just over A$4 million after owning it for 22 years.[2]

It is currently owned and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), by which it was purchased in 2008 with funds from private donors and a A$1.8 million grant from the Australian Government.[3] It lies in the Central Kimberley Bioregion and adjoins Mornington Sanctuary, already owned by the AWC. The two sanctuaries combined will form a 6,400 square kilometres (2,471 sq mi) protected area extending over 100 kilometres (62 mi) from north to south, and will be one of the world's largest privately owned reserves.[4]

  1. ^ "Rate rise too high for remote cattle station". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 13 September 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  2. ^ "Grazier has mixed feelings about Marion Downs sale". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 17 December 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  3. ^ "AWC take control of Marion Downs". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 20 August 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Marion-ps was invoked but never defined (see the help page).