Keith Bishop is the owner of Cordyline Retreat, a forested property located approximately 30km south of Forster. The property is a dedicated wildlife sanctuary with a residence and a guest cabin. Keith is an aquatic ecologist with extensive experience and has developed a long time series of data on forest animal observations at the property. It is Keith’s intent for the property to continue in its current purposes and to accept occasional guest visitors in the future.
Cordyline Retreat is a heavily vegetated, 10.2 hectare parcel of land comprising of wet sclerophyll forest with rainforest gullies merging into Casuarina forest/swamp at the front of the property. Two thousand years ago with sea levels 1.0-1.5 metres higher the front area would have been an arm of the nearby Smith’s Lake.
The sanctuary provides habitat for a wealth of wildlife including regent bowerbirds (Sericulus chrysocephalus), king parrots (Alisterus scapularis), laughing kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae), superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus), spiny crayfish (Euastacus spp.), eastern dwarf tree frogs (Litoria fallax), eastern water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii), lace monitors (Varanus varius), red-necked pademelons (Thylogale thetis), spotted-tailed quolls (Dasyurus maculatus), Antechinus, common brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) and many more.
