Mary River Safaris for Sale

Astrobird

Astrobird

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I just came across an old edition of a safari magazine from 2005, and it had a story on this Mary River Safaris. The part that I enjoyed was (and I quote) "Mary River Australian Safaris provides authentic photographic safaris in a natural environment for 10 species of game: Water Buffalo, Banteng, Sambar Deer, Hog Deer, North Island Rusa Deer, Javan Rusa Deer, Axis Deer, Blackbuck Antelope, Wild Boar and Scrub Bulls. Large numbers of feral wild horses and donkeys also roam our area.
Recently introduced for game viewing purposes only are Scimitar Horned Oryx, Eland, Addax, Nilgai, Letchwe and Grevey's Zebra. This adds to the unique photographic experience."

I didn't realise Eland were ever up there - there's no mention of them being there recently so I guess they died out.
 
Does anyone know what happened to all the animals on this property? I can’t find any information about whether or not they are still there.
 
MattyP said:
Does anyone know what happened to all the animals on this property? I can’t find any information about whether or not they are still there.
Click to expand...
The last article i read in a hunting magazine noted that blackbuck were getting small in number due to predation by dingos. I dont recall any other antelope species mentioned in that article
 
MattyP said:
Does anyone know what happened to all the animals on this property? I can’t find any information about whether or not they are still there.
Click to expand...

Some exotics were sent to other zoos in the early days.
Monarto a year or so ago brought in a heard of I think 35 scimitar oryx of the top of my head. Im not sure is they took all that was left or just a decent sized chunk of them. A pygmy hippo was shot dead by some hunters who thought it was an odd looking pig. Apart from that there isnt much out there.
 
MattyP said:
Does anyone know what happened to all the animals on this property? I can’t find any information about whether or not they are still there.
Click to expand...
Tiger91 said:
Some exotics were sent to other zoos in the early days.
Monarto a year or so ago brought in a heard of I think 35 scimitar oryx of the top of my head. Im not sure is they took all that was left or just a decent sized chunk of them. A pygmy hippo was shot dead by some hunters who thought it was an odd looking pig. Apart from that there isnt much out there.
Click to expand...

Monarto received a mixed sex group of Scimitar-horned oryx in 2011 from Mary River Station.

By 2021, Monarto’s herd had grown to nearly 50 in number:

https://www.monartosafari.com.au/oryx-eleven-extinct-in-the-wild-scimitar-horned-oryx-born-at-monarto-safari-park/

The incident of the female Pygmy hippopotamus was very unfortunate. It was shot in 2009 and was believed to have escaped from the Tipperary Station site.
 
Tiger91 said:
Same same but different. The stations are virtually next door to each other, only 182km which for the sizes they are is practically next door. The origin of the animals are all from the same place until one guy started moving animals from one station to the next, its a weird story.
Click to expand...
Just looked it up and they are indeed much closer to each other than I originally thought (I thought Mary River was in Queensland).
 
Osedax said:
Just looked it up and they are indeed much closer to each other than I originally thought (I thought Mary River was in Queensland).
Click to expand...

A lot of the Mary river animals went to Queenslands pearl coast zoo, before being exported when the zoo shut down.

If im remembering correctly tipperary was the original site where exotics were brought to.
 
Tiger91 said:
A lot of the Mary river animals went to Queenslands pearl coast zoo, before being exported when the zoo shut down.

If im remembering correctly tipperary was the original site where exotics were brought to.
Click to expand...

A bit back to front!

Many exotic ungulates were imported to Lord MacAlpine's Pearl Coast Zoo - and thence moved to Tipperary upon the closure of Pearl Coast. There were even Grevy's Zebras at one point!

More came from existing Australian zoos - Common Hippo, Giraffe, Antelope sp etc.

Pearl Coast also had a wonderful collection of Macaws which came into the Aussie private aviculture world upon the closure of Pearl Coast.

When Tipperary closed, most of those ungulates moved on to Mary River and the ownership of Kevin Gleeson. Later, some were sold to Australian zoos such a Monarto, Altina and David Gills Mareeba establishment.
 
Steve Robinson said:
A bit back to front!

Many exotic ungulates were imported to Lord MacAlpine's Pearl Coast Zoo - and thence moved to Tipperary upon the closure of Pearl Coast. There were even Grevy's Zebras at one point!

More came from existing Australian zoos - Common Hippo, Giraffe, Antelope sp etc.

Pearl Coast also had a wonderful collection of Macaws which came into the Aussie private aviculture world upon the closure of Pearl Coast.

When Tipperary closed, most of those ungulates moved on to Mary River and the ownership of Kevin Gleeson. Later, some were sold to Australian zoos such a Monarto, Altina and David Gills Mareeba establishment.
Click to expand...

It may come as a surprise as to just how many of those animals that returned from Mary River were from bloodlines already established in the region's herds.
 
Steve Robinson said:
A bit back to front!

Many exotic ungulates were imported to Lord MacAlpine's Pearl Coast Zoo - and thence moved to Tipperary upon the closure of Pearl Coast. There were even Grevy's Zebras at one point!

More came from existing Australian zoos - Common Hippo, Giraffe, Antelope sp etc.

Pearl Coast also had a wonderful collection of Macaws which came into the Aussie private aviculture world upon the closure of Pearl Coast.

When Tipperary closed, most of those ungulates moved on to Mary River and the ownership of Kevin Gleeson. Later, some were sold to Australian zoos such a Monarto, Altina and David Gills Mareeba establishment.
Click to expand...
Steve Robinson said:
It may come as a surprise as to just how many of those animals that returned from Mary River were from bloodlines already established in the region's herds.
Click to expand...

The Common hippopotamus that returned to the region via Tipperary/Cairns Wildlife Safari were from the region.

Tipperary Station imported the following from Auckland Zoo in 1988:

1.0 Fonzie (1986) Kabete x Faith
0.1 Solucky (1987) Kabete x Snorkel

They produced 1.1 offspring at Tipperary, of which the female (Cuddles, born 2002) was eventually sent to Taronga Western Plains Zoo. Along with her mother and brother (both exported), they were the only descendants of Dizzie/Fatima (Taronga imports and regional founders), so it was good to retain Cuddles within the region. Her paternal line is well represented regionally.
 
Steve Robinson said:
A bit back to front!

Many exotic ungulates were imported to Lord MacAlpine's Pearl Coast Zoo - and thence moved to Tipperary upon the closure of Pearl Coast. There were even Grevy's Zebras at one point!

More came from existing Australian zoos - Common Hippo, Giraffe, Antelope sp etc.

Pearl Coast also had a wonderful collection of Macaws which came into the Aussie private aviculture world upon the closure of Pearl Coast.

When Tipperary closed, most of those ungulates moved on to Mary River and the ownership of Kevin Gleeson. Later, some were sold to Australian zoos such a Monarto, Altina and David Gills Mareeba establishment.
Click to expand...

Ah right, its been a while since I have read about them. Mareeba!, that's the one I was thinking of and called it pearl coast :D. Kevin Gleeson, from some of the news articles that I have read, did he work for the guy that owned tipperary, and when he had a pay dispute started moving some of the animals over to Mary river ?

I havent heard about pearl coasts macaws!. Ive heard singo imported a very large quantity a while back as well that disseminated into private aviculture. Ive driven past his place/around the area a few times and you see them out flying around when they are let out for the day.
 
Tiger91 said:
Ah right, its been a while since I have read about them. Mareeba!, that's the one I was thinking of and called it pearl coast :D. Kevin Gleeson, from some of the news articles that I have read, did he work for the guy that owned tipperary, and when he had a pay dispute started moving some of the animals over to Mary river ?
Click to expand...

Not sure that Mr Gleeson ever worked for Tipperary. In the timeframe that we are talking about, Tipperary was owned by Warren Anderson, a property developer who built many of the K Mart stores. I am told that he later formed a partnership with an Indonesian company with whom he later had a falling out and had to get the exotic animals off the Tipperary property. [This bit is largely hearsay so don't take it as gospel]. Tipperary has a sealed airstrip of about 2500 metres long and it is also hearsay that Paul Keating had been known to fly in for hunting trips.

Most of the exotic animals went to Mary River - which was a hunting ranch. Some remained on Tipperary and were quite recently involved in a major stoush between Mr Anderson and the NT government who claimed that they were abandoned, neglected etc and provided some bales of hay for them amid great publicity.

I am told that Kevin Gleeson managed his populations quite well and animals were only selectively hunted. Eventually, due to old age and resulting poor health, Mr Gleeson sought to sell Mary River and retire. Unfortunately he died before achieving this. Prior to his death quite a number of animals were sold to the aforementioned mainstream zoos.

The story gets quite vague after this. It was rumoured that the property was sold to Chinese interests although I cannot confirm this. However I have been told that the stock has not been well managed and recent enquiries by a colleague have revealed that not very many remain - the rest having succumbed to predation, drought etc.

The Pygmy Hippo saga, and subsequent preventable death, could fill several chapters of a book and is not for discussion here. Yet!
 
Tiger91 said:
I havent heard about pearl coasts macaws!. Ive heard singo imported a very large quantity a while back as well that disseminated into private aviculture. Ive driven past his place/around the area a few times and you see them out flying around when they are let out for the day.
Click to expand...

I doubt that even Singo's $quillions would have secured an import of Psittacines!

However, irrespective of their origin, he does have a very impressive collection and employs a manager solely for his flock.

To see them free flying out of that huge aviary is a sight to behold.
 
Steve Robinson said:
I doubt that even Singo's $quillions would have secured an import of Psittacines!

However, irrespective of their origin, he does have a very impressive collection and employs a manager solely for his flock.

To see them free flying out of that huge aviary is a sight to behold.
Click to expand...

Apparently he managed it just before the import ban of memory I want to say sometime in the 90's.
He actually has a caffe not far from his property with the macaws. You can sit and hear them fly around, I have only ever seen 1 fly over at a time. But you can hear them of flying around. A mate of mine is a farrier that has worked at the property and has said it is a site to see when they let them out of a morning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top