ANDREA and Joel Little's passion for wildlife has seen them create a species-savings sanctuary that is doing its bit to preserve endangered animal populations.
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Together, they are bringing these animals, such as bettongs and parma wallabies, to their property, Conmurra Wildlife Sanctuary, and breeding them in the hopes of then releasing them into the wild.
"We're just a husband and wife team. This is our passion. It's not a hobby," Mr Little said.
"We see this as a business and we want to make sure it works, but we recognise that we're limited.
"We can't do everything, so what we do is we do what we can do here, we share their story and raise awareness locally and breed their animals here, then we work with other organisations."
Mr and Mrs Little met at Victoria's Mount Rothwell, a large conservation reserve, the same place where they both learnt about building enclosures, breeding programs and similar conservation tools.
The skills and knowledge they gained at Mount Rothwell put them in prime position to eventually buy their property at Walang and start their own conservation operation.
"We bought it off friends of ours, this amazing property. It's got lots of natural bush, lots of habitat, lots of nesting hollows; there was always wildlife there," Mr Little said.
"[Our friends] ran a traditional B'n'B, so when we bought it we basically started it up again as an Airbnb in the early days and we wanted to get back into wildlife, so dingoes, believe it or not, were the easiest animals to get back into.
"We got dingoes back in 2014 and then we wanted to do something more and something that really connects with conservation."
![Andrea and Joel Little (centre) with the Jo Ross Memorial Award on Australia Day. Picture by James Arrow Andrea and Joel Little (centre) with the Jo Ross Memorial Award on Australia Day. Picture by James Arrow](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/gfyFBZ2A3aREPWrpf4KzA3/dfb56c8b-b93a-4171-991e-30d9860c0f48.jpg/r0_0_5288_3643_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
In 2020, the couple got a licence that permits them to hold native animals on the property and began working with other conservation agencies, wildlife parks and sanctuaries.
In September of that year they fundraised to build an enclosure and then brought in their first endangered animals, which were bettongs, potoroos, bandicoots and parma wallabies.
"All the really small animals that basically can't live in the wild anymore because of foxes and cats," Mr Little said.
"Then not long after that we got support from the NSW government to build a brushed-tail rock-wallaby enclosure, and brushed-tail rock-wallabies are endangered in NSW, only about 3000 left."
Mr and Mrs Little look after and breed the animals, with the intention of them being released into the wild.
"We've already had one female go to Jenolan Caves, which is the nearest wild population, and just yesterday (January 25, 2024) we exchanged animals," Mr Little said.
"One animal went to Aussie Ark, which is up in Barrington Tops, a big wildlife preserve up there, and got a new female to bring into our conservation reserve."
Mr and Mrs Little were recognised for their conservation efforts on Australia Day when they were announced as the recipients of the Jo Ross Memorial Award.
Every year the award is presented to an individual, group or institution in recognition of their ongoing efforts to improve the local environment.
The award is named after former councillor Josephine Ross, a natural environmentalist, who contributed significantly to Bathurst before her death in 2006.
Mr Little said they were surprised and honoured to learn they were receiving the award.
"I always have a bit of impostor syndrome; you see the people on the award and I know pretty much everybody on here and they're all amazing people and have done really amazing things," he said.
"We don't do it alone. I couldn't have done this without Andrea. We do this as a team. We can't have done it without the support of everyone around us."
But their conservation efforts are nowhere near over.
More animals are on the way to Conmurra and Mr and Mrs Little will continue to keep protecting them and strengthening the population.
"We want to do our part, which is a small part, but it's integral to lots of other organisations," Mr Little said.
"You can't put all your eggs in one basket anymore. You can't just have one organisation doing all the work, and so it's all about collaboration, and partnerships, and networking, and things like that."