Valerie Lhuedé and Foundation CEO Leonie Gale celebrating. Photo: Steve Gale.

Valerie Lhuedé has been restoring her own private ghost town of Yerranderie for over thirty years, but at the age of 87, she donated the 467-hectare property to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. It will become aRegional Park, preserving its heritage buildings and wildlife habitats for the enjoyment of all. Handover celebrations took place at Yerranderie over the Easter long weekend.

The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife has been working for five years to facilitate Miss Lhuedé’s land donation to ensure the town’s unique historical and ecological values will continue to be conserved, and access for the public maintained.

Located just 45 km west of Camden as the crow flies, within the western section of the Blue Mountains National Park, Yerranderie has operated as a tourist destination under the watch of Valerie and her caretakers. It’s a popular spot for 4WD tours and hardened bushwalkers. Up to 60 people can stay at the site in restored historic buildings or camping.

“As I have become older, I realized I could no longer pursue the role of manager and custodian as I had before. So for the last ten years I have tried to find an organisation to which I could donate Yerranderie,” Miss Lhuedé said.

In March 2011 Miss Lhuedé announced, “I am donating Yerranderie to the National Parks and Wildlife Service with a list of my wishes for Yerranderie’s future.”

“Yerranderie is an important part of Sydney’s cultural heritage,” said Ms Leonie Gale, CEO of the Foundation. “A visit to the place immerses you in the area’s rich silver mining history, and its intriguing European and indigenous stories. Val has lovingly restored many of its early 20th century buildings and preserved countless artefacts of historical value.”

“Val’s property also contains hundreds of hectares of wildlife habitats. Yellow-Bellied gliders, Sugar gliders, Eastern Grey kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, possums and numerous bird species live on the property.” Ms Gale said. “Thanks to Val’s generous donation, these thriving 467 hectares will be protected forever.”

Yerranderie, once stripped of native grasses by cattle and partially deforested, was encouraged to return to a wildlife sanctuary under Ms Lhuedé care. “I let all the trees grow back and got rid of the nasties that had come in. I’d go out in the evening and chop the weeds, and by slow degrees I had the area around the Private Town back to the original tall trees and grassland underneath,” Miss Lhuedé said.

Miss Lhuedé describes Yerranderie as a “very beautiful spot in the mountains full of myths and legends and history.” As a veteran world traveler, she is qualified when she says that Yerranderie “has everything that you would have at places such as Macchu Picchu or Rarotonga or wherever.” Miss Lhuedé has written a book, Yerranderie is my Dreaming, about the British, Aboriginal and French history of the area.

During its heyday of 1907 to 1914, Yerranderie had a population of over 2000 people. But those heady days are long gone; the price of silver dropped and the site was cut off from direct access to Sydney by the Warragamba Dam project. Today it is only accessible via Oberon and long stretches of gravel road, making it a five-hour trek from Sydney.

Miss Lhuedé’s vision for Yerranderie’s future is simple. She wants the public to enjoy it and all it has to offer. “I’d like to see Yerranderie as the centre of a special tourist group and get young people out into the mountains especially,” she said. “I feel they should be given the chance to see the bush and feel the earth under their feet instead of concrete.”

Miss Lhuedé chose the timing of the handover celebrations for historical significance. The Easter long weekend marked one hundred years since the consecration of the local St Senan’s Catholic Church. Yerranderie’s Post Office, which today provides accommodation, is 104 years old this year too.

The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife is the only organisation in Australia whose philanthropy is an investment in Australia’s public estate.

To learn more about Yerranderie, visit www.yerranderie.com.