Mt. Gibson Protected Area (Australia)

The Lost World in the foreground with the ramparts of Mt. Windsor behind on Mt Gibson | Photo credit: South Endeavour Trust

In October 2021, South Endeavour Trust acquired the 85,250 acre Mt. Gibson pastoral lease with the help of a nearly $3,000,000 grant from the Wyss Foundation. The Mt. Gibson property, which is located within the catchment of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland’s Cape York, is a biological gem and contains the headwaters of the Normanby River, one of the largest tributaries to the Great Barrier Reef. The West Fork of the Normanby River flows through and along the property’s boundary for almost twenty-five miles. The property is home to large granite and basalt plateaus and thirteen distinct ecosystems can be found on the property. At least ten endangered or near threatened plant species call the property home; eleven endangered or near threatened mammals including Northern Quoll, Spotted-tail Quoll, Bennett’s Tree-kangaroo, the Yellow Bellied Glider, and the Greater Large-eared Horseshoe Bat are also found on the property. Securing permanent protection of Mt. Gibson was considered a priority as sedimentation caused by overgrazing, mining, invasive species (feral hogs and cattle), and unsustainable forestry within the catchment of the Great Barrier Reef is considered a major threat to the health of the reef ecosystem. South Endeavour Trust plans to retain the property in its ownership in perpetuity, adding it to the twenty other reserves it currently manages across New South Wales and Queensland.

A year after the acquisition, the State of Queensland formally announced the protection of the Mt. Gibson property as a Nature Refuge under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act of 1992. The property is now part of Queensland’s (and Australia’s) protected area estate.