Animals at the Quarantine Station

History
Immigration

Carvings
on site

Residents
in the past

Harbour foreshores

Birds

Reptiles

There are ringtail possums, brushtail possums and bats living in the bushland at the Manly Quarantine Station and fruit bats fly in to visit.

During the Open Day on June 6th volunteers from the Sydney Flying Fox Association enabled people to see and learn about the fruit bat. Fruit bats roost in a gully in Gordon and fly out each night to feed on fruit all over Sydney. Many fruit bats roost during the day in the Botanical Gardens. One of their favourite foods is the fig.

Long-nosed Bandicoots

Long-nosed bandicoots once were found throughout Sydney but over the years, urbanisation, feral animals and domestic dogs and cats have caused their numbers to decline drastically. People have not liked the way they burrow in suburban lawns and have killed them.

Until recently the North Head colony of long-nosed bandicoots roamed freely between the Quarantine Station and the grounds of St Patrick's Theological College but now the College grounds are to be subdivided and built up for housing. The bandicoot colony will need to retreat to the Quarantine Station. Hopefully, they will be protected in this location.

Long-nosed bandicoots forage mainly at night which leads to their demise via roadkills from time to time. Luckily for the bandicoots, traffic on North Head and in the Quarantine Station at night is restricted.

NPWS is preparing a Recovery Plan for the long-nosed bandicoots.

Fruit bat being demonstrated by
a  volunteer from the
Sydney Flying Fox association
based in Gordon.
Photographed by P. Bennett
during the Open Day 6th June, 1999

Click here to visit a page 
about the bandicoots published by the Manly Environment Centre.

Bandicoots play a vital role in 
Australian bush ecology - they eat 
and disperse fungi which determine
the success of plant communities.

Harbour foreshores

Birds

Reptiles