Australian Billionaire Donates $10 Million to Turn 17,000 Acres Into Wildlife Sanctuary

May 27, 2026

An Australian billionaire and his wife are turning thousands of acres of former cattle and logging land into a massive sanctuary for wildlife, creating a safe haven for koalas, gliders, rainforest species, and other threatened animals in one of the country’s most beautiful mountain regions.

Mike Gregg / The Great Dividing Range

Technology investor Mike Gregg and his wife Sue donated $10 million to purchase six adjoining properties in Australia’s Great Dividing Range, a vast landscape filled with towering forests, rainforest-covered gorges, rivers, and grassy woodlands.

The newly protected land spans about 7,000 hectares near Port Macquarie in New South Wales and will now be managed entirely for conservation instead of farming and logging.

The project was carried out through the Great Southern Land Conservancy, a nonprofit the couple helped establish last year.

“We found ourselves in the very fortunate position to do some good,” Sue Gregg told The Sydney Morning Herald. “We love nature and wildlife. So, we thought, preserving and restoring land was the best thing we could do with our money.”

The reserve is already home to an incredible range of wildlife, including koalas, greater gliders, spotted-tail quolls, glossy black cockatoos, frogs, wallabies, and turtles. Conservation teams plan to restore damaged areas while protecting the forests from weeds, feral animals, and future destruction.

Some sections of the property had recently been logged, with trucks reportedly still hauling giant trees away during final inspections before the purchase was completed.

Gregg, an early investor in software company WiseTech Global, said he and his wife felt a responsibility to use their fortune for something meaningful rather than luxury purchases.

“We’ve got to think about how we’re going to do something with this, and it’s not buying a big yacht,” he said.

Conservation leaders in Australia say the donation is believed to be one of the largest private gifts ever made for land conservation in New South Wales.