DIVINE intervention

World Heritage-listed wilderness awaits on the outskirts of Sydney at Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley, where a passionate team of conservationists are protecting some of Australia’s rarest flora and fauna, writes Natasha Dragun.

Mention the word ‘wallaroo’ to most non-Australians and they will give you a blank stare. Mention ‘albino wallaroo’ and, well – mind blown. These rare and elusive creatures are thought to number just one in every 100,000 of the marsupials. Remarkably, there are several residing in the Greater Blue Mountains on the grounds of Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley.

I spot the powder-white mohawk of one amid a tussock of golden grass; it’s close to sunset, and I’m on ‘safari’ with a field guide. It turns out humans are not the only creatures who revel in the dappled light this time of day brings. We pause to watch the wallaroo as it stares back at us – curious, but not overly cautious. Our drive continues through a forest of endangered Capertee stringybark, Wolgan snow gums and tea trees – the lemonscented latter is infused into the resort’s house-distilled gin.

Understatedly beautiful, and perhaps the most remarkable find on the property, is the grove of Wollemi pine on the 2,800-hectare estate. Presumed extinct until 1994, the tree was rediscovered in neighbouring Wollemi National Park, telling a floral story that is more than 90 million years old. Today, it’s one of the rarest tree species in the world.

In the company of field guides, guests staying at the carbon-zero retreat can help participate in habitat restoration projects, whether tree planting (the property has a bank of more than one million native seed species) or wildlife surveys, tracking bare-nosed wombats, and many other indigenous animals.

Whether you’re in a Land Rover or on foot, the menagerie of creatures around you is hard to fathom – particularly given that much of the surrounding landscape was impacted by the 2019/2020 bushfires.

But all the hard work regenerating native forest has paid off, and today you stand a good chance of glimpsing lyrebirds and echidnas, brown falcons and rainbow bee-eaters. Oh, and a platypus or two, which guests and guides report spotting on a more frequent basis.

In addition to the wildlife you’ll encounter, glowworms light up an abandoned train tunnel in Wollemi

National Park, the track once used to transport oil shale into Wolgan Valley. Fairytale lights twinkle overhead like the night’s Milky Way, mist-draped ferns all around. The scene could have slipped straight from the pages of a storybook. Indeed, the conservation work being done in this extraordinary pocket of New South Wales is worthy of its own tome. oneandonlyresorts.com/wolgan-valley

01 Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley 02 The resort’s villas come with private pools 03 Explore the property on horseback 04 The resort employs a team of passionate conservationists 05 Native wildlife thrives here. 06 Southern Hemisphere stargazing. Images © Emirates One&Only Wolgan Valley

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