Road building has commenced. Adam Lowe from Adam Lowe Earthmoving has taken up the challenge of building the roads and providing the extensive preparation work required for the building of Devil Ark free-range pens and surrounding perimeter fences. More on the fencing in a few weeks. The existing 4km 'track' is impassable during wet times - and at Tomalla Station 'wet times' are certainly not rare. Materials are transported from the nearest 'quarry', before being dumped, shaped with a grader, and rolled. Sounds simple - and it would be, if it didn't rain every second day and put the kibosh on progress.

A nice change in the weather - unfortunately going into the weekend, is captured by this view of the Tomalla Station gate - the property upon which Devil Ark is being constructed.

Kevin and John contend with intermittent rains and weak GPS signals through trees in defining and marking out tracks and pens, trying always to avoid unnecessary tree loss. The more the Devil Ark team members explore the property, the more they fall in love with it. It appears to be a 10 out of 10 in terms of devil-suitability, and indeed, it would be easy to forget that you are not in Northeastern Tasmania. The spectacular 500 ha property, along with nearby house and complex of building structures was generously made available by the James Packer family. This support has been absolutely critical to the advancement of the project – and perhaps the long-term survival of the iconic marsupial carnivore.

Welcome to Devil Ark

Welcome to the official blog for Devil Ark, the Tassie Devil breeding facility being established on an incredibly beautiful 500ha block of land in the middle of Tomalla Station, high in the Barrington Tops of NSW.  If you want to find out more about Devil Ark and the plight of the Tasmanian devils go to http://www.devilark.com.au/, but if you want to track the construction and arrival of the new devils, then watch this space!  Here are a couple of photos of what the site looks like.  In a word, it is perfect.