We are still here and still determined as ever to make a difference to the future of the world's rhinos - despite the challenges of the past 12 months. The Australian Rhino Project team has been diligently working behind the scenes for the past 12 months to further advance our mission to help protect the world's rhinos. We can't say that the past 12 months has been without challenges for everyone, but we are excited to share some significant progress that has been made.

Orana Wildlife Park - Rhino Management Facility Construction Begins

After lockdowns and challenging weather events, we are excited to announce that our conservation partner, Orana Wildlife Park, has broken ground in New Zealand on the construction of the New Zealand White Rhino Conservation Centre. The exciting occasion was documented by the hard-working Orana Wildlife Park team and supported by numerous contractors, suppliers and rhino fans. This $1.4M White Rhino Conservation Centre at Orana Wildlife Park, Christchurch, will be able to hold up to 20 rhinos at a time and serve to support the rhino crash at Orana. Rhinos will be quarantined at this facility prior to their transfer to Australia whilst a population will also be maintained in New Zealand.

Wild Africa at Monarto Safari Park is well progressed with the Rhino Management Centre nearing completion. The team at Monarto has been increasing their focus on the construction of the rhino raceway with all seven hundred and thirty railway iron posts now concreted a metre into the ground. Work is now underway on installing cable holders (3000), box sections and over 20 sliding gates. A large volunteer group recently planted six hundred native seedlings in gaps around the perimeter of the property and installed another three hundred metres of rabbit-proof netting to the bottom of the perimeter fence. The 550-hectare precinct of Wild Africa is an impressive location with many species now being released into the open plain areas including 39 scimitar-horned oryx, eight plains zebra, five elands, along with 17 blackbucks, one male waterbuck and seven ostriches.

Over the past 12 months, we have been particularly grateful for the support that we have received from our Cornerstone Partners; HardHat and Gold Rhino. HardHat is a cloud software solution provider that enables organisations to manage information about people, projects and operations – all from one platform. Gold Rhino is a private equity firm working closely with Australasian-based software development companies. HardHat and Gold Rhino actively support the conservation and population growth of Africa's most endangered wildlife animal, the rhinoceros. Their passion and commitment to our project inspires us and allows us to focus on our goal of building a breeding population of rhinos in Australia and New Zealand. Thank you to Tim Smith and his team, this project would not be possible without your support.

The identified rhinos for the Australian Rhino Project remain in a safe location in South Africa under 24/7 protection. Presently, it is a challenging time in South Africa and our thoughts go to all supporters and rhino lovers in South Africa. Our team on the ground in South Africa are focused on caring for the rhino whilst the process for importing the rhinos follows the necessary process of quarantine facility construction and certification. While we would like to provide an update on import timings in this newsletter, we will wait until we receive further updates before we provide a more detailed import timeframe.

Unfortunately, the past twelve months have presented us with more evidence that the poaching crisis in South Africa is not going away. The population of white rhinos in Kruger National Park is now estimated to be approx. 3,500. Further details can be read in the South African National Parks Annual Report.

The population of rhinos in South Africa, home to the world's largest population of rhinos, has declined substantially over the past decade. The need for continued efforts to protect the world's rhinos is ongoing and our project remains an important element in the global fight to ensure a future for the world's rhinos.

We would like to congratulate Peter Clark, Director of Monarto Safari Park, who was recently presented with a UNESCO achievement award. Peter is actively involved in the Australian Rhino Project providing support on rhino husbandry and managing Wild Africa development and construction at Monarto Safari Park in South Australia.

Peter received his award after Helen Rice, Chairperson of the UNESCO Clubs Adelaide Chapter commended him to His Excellency the Honourable Hieu Van Le AC Governor of South Australia and his wife, Mrs Lan Le. Helen noted Peter's work in both Papua New Guinea and South Australia with ‘some of the rarest animals in the world’. 

Peter’s UNESCO Achievement Award was one of five presented as part of the UNESCO Adelaide Awards 2021. Well done Peter and thank you for all the work that you do for rhinos.

Supporting the Honorary Rangers in Kruger National Park, South Africa

Together with Ambleside Distillery and Zoos SA in South Australia, The Australian Rhino Project was delighted to recently support the donation of radio batteries to the Honorary Rangers. The batteries were distributed across all 22 sections in the Kruger National Park to be used by rangers in the field to ensure they have sufficient batteries during extended patrols and deployments in the field. Radios enable constant communication amongst rangers, air support, K9 Units and the radio room or operations centre and reliable radio communication can be the tipping point between success and failure. Radio communication can mitigate the loss of life, facilitating immediate requests for medical response, alerting rangers to danger, and implementing a rescue or support operations.

We wanted to make a special mention of two schools that have recently gone above and beyond to support our project with their fundraising.

The Australian Rhino Project is a registered Australian charity and relies on fundraising and partner organisation support. We are very grateful for the significant support and contribution of our cornerstone partners, Gold Rhino and HardHat, who together have assisted in helping accelerate our plans to build a future for rhinos in Australia.

You can show your support by sharing our updates, following our social media, or making a donation.

Allan Davies
Chairman on behalf of the Australian Rhino Project board and team