1998: Crucial wildlife corridor created in WA

Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary is established and Professor Tim Flannery joins AWC

The success of Karakamia inspired Martin to look for more land and he began buying properties along the southern slopes of the Avon Valley in the Perth hills.

By 1998 he had consolidated these purchases to establish Paruna Wildlife Sanctuary. At 2,500 hectares, Paruna represented a sizeable leap in scale from Karakamia, and formed a crucial wildlife corridor between the Walyunga and Avon Valley National Parks. This established a combined protected area of approximately 19,500 hectares and demonstrated that private sanctuaries could compliment the public national park system.

In 1998 Paruna was offically opened by Professor Tim Flannery, after which he joined Martin Copley AM, Ross Ledger AM and Dr Barry Wilson on the AWC Board. Together, Tim and Barry brought a science focus to the core activities of the organisation.