Mount Zero-Taravale Sanctuary is a 600 km²

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

in north-east

Queensland, Australia Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, ...

, 60 km north-west of

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

. It is owned and managed by the

Australian Wildlife Conservancy The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) is an independent Australian nonprofit organisation, working to conserve threatened wildlife and ecosystems in Australia. AWC is the largest private owner and manager of land for conservation in Austral ...

(AWC). It is located on the boundary of the

Wet Tropics The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km2 of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. The Wet Tropics of Queensland meets all f ...

bioregion A bioregion is a geographical area, on land or at sea, defined not by administrative boundaries, but by distinct characteristics such as plant and animal species, ecological systems, soils and landforms, Human settlement, human settlements, and ...

and Einasleigh Uplands bioregion, adjacent to the Wet Tropics

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The property varies in altitude from 350 m in the south-west to 1,050 m in the north-east, and in landform from rugged mountains to a broad alluvial valley. The vegetation includes

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

, grassy

eucalypt Eucalypt is any woody plant with Capsule (fruit), capsule fruiting bodies belonging to one of seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

s and open

Hoop Pine ''Araucaria cunninghamii'' is a species of ''Araucaria'' known as hoop pine. Other less commonly used names include colonial pine, Queensland pine, Dorrigo pine, Moreton Bay pine and Richmond River pine. The scientific name honours the botanist a ...

woodlands. Annual rainfall varies from 900 mm in the southern section to 1300 mm in the north-east.

History

Mount Zero and Taravale were separate

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to Pastoral farming, graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Austral ...

s primarily managed for

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

for over 50 years. Mount Zero was acquired by AWC in 2002, and Taravale in 2003, with assistance from the

Natural Heritage Trust The Natural Heritage Trust (NHT), or National Heritage Trust Account was set up in 1997 by means of the ''Natural Heritage Trust of Australia Act 1997'', with the main objective of conserving the "natural capital infrastructure" of Australia. Mo ...

. As well as cattle grazing, some small-scale

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and selective

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckssouthern cassowary The southern cassowary (''Casuarius casuarius''), also known as double-wattled cassowary, Australian cassowary, or two-wattled cassowary, is a large Flightless bird, flightless black bird, found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and northeastern ...

masked owl Masked owl or masked-owl refers to various owls in the genus ''Tyto'', including: * Australian masked owl (''Tyto novaehollandiae'') ** Tasmanian masked owl (''Tyto novaehollandiae castanops'') * Golden masked owl (''Tyto aurantia'') * Manus ma ...

northern bettong The northern bettong (''Bettongia tropica'') is a small, endangered, gerbil-like mammal native to forests in northeast Australia. A member of the rat-kangaroo family ( Potoroidae), it moves by hopping and lives in burrows, feeding at night on roo ...

and

northern quoll The northern quoll (''Dasyurus hallucatus''), also known as the northern native cat, the North Australian native cat or the satanellus is a carnivorous marsupial native to Australia. Taxonomy The northern quoll is a member of the family Das ...

External links

Australian Wildlife Conservancy

Mount Zero-Taravale Nature Refuge
Nature reserves in Queensland Australian Wildlife Conservancy reserves 2002 establishments in Australia {{Queensland-geo-stub