Kelly Nalden-Brown and Steve Nalden are the owners of Leafy Retreat, a property located approximately 10km north of Samford. The property is a dedicated wildlife sanctuary and a residence. It is Kelly and Steve’s intent for the property to continue to be used for conservation purposes and as a soft release site for rehabilitated wildlife. The property is also registered with Land for Wildlife, and the owners are working towards accreditation.
Leafy Retreat covers approximately 2.1 hectares of natural bushland which slopes down to two gullies and is dominated by wet and dry eucalypt forest with pockets of rainforest. The property encompasses the following Regional Ecosystems: Riparian Rainforest (12.3.1), Riparian Forest of Blue Gum, weeping bottlebrush and River She Oak (12.3.7), Floodplain Blue Gum, Open Forest (12.3.11), Open Forest with Grey Ironbark and Small-Fruited Grey Gum (12.11.13) and Mixed Open gum forest with spotted gum (12.11.5).
Wildlife known to inhabit the property include koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), sugar gliders (Petaurus breviceps), swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae), magpies (Cracticus tibicen), wedge-tailed eagles (Aquila audax), fairy wrens (Malurus spp.), lace monitors (Varanus varius), fan-tailed cuckoos (Cacomantis flabelliformis), rufous whistlers (Pachycephala rufiventris), grey shrike-thrushes (Colluricincla harmonica), white-throated (Melithreptus albogularis) and yellow-faced (Lichenostomus chrysops) honeyeaters, white-throated gerygones (Gerygone olivacea), grey fantails (Rhipidura albiscapa) and red-backed fairywrens (Malurus melanocephalus).
