Dodging blue tongue lizards and the bureaucracy, John Starr and his son Craig juggle more conflicting interests than most farmers on a growing city's fringe.
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The land they lease is home to so many rare birds and plants that the ACT government wants to fence off the entire suburb of Kinlyside, which makes up part of the property.
A draft strategic assessment will go on public exhibition next week, proposing adding Kinlyside and pieces of Taylor and Jacka to nature reserves
Old box gums with hollows and scraggly grasslands will be used to offset development elsewhere in Gungahlin's new suburbs, to protect nationally significant wildlife in areas that conservationists say is among the country's most valuable bushland.
The ACT's Conservation Council, which has badgered the territory for years to lump all of the new suburbs into one assessment to meet federal environmental legislation, says Kinlyside should never have been considered for housing in the first place. The council's executive director Clare Henderson said a better option than developing the new suburbs would be urban infill.
John Starr has been at Kinlyside since 1970, first as a manager than a leaseholder. He handed over the farm to his son Craig, who spends increasing time closing gates after trespassers, picking up rubbish and helping his 1800 head of merino sheep cope with Canberra's widening urban sprawl.
''Those little single serves of tuna tins, there are heaps of those,'' Craig Starr said. ''The sheep tread on them and they get stuck on their feet.''
Conservationists say Mr Starr is doing a better job preserving habitat than others in Canberra's nature reserves, because of the number of staff to cover vast areas.
Mr Starr said a birdwatcher who surveyed Kinlyside's species had said it was one of the region's most diverse collections.
Working among wildlife makes up for managing fuel loads to appease firefighters on one hand and conservationists on the other, he said. ''The other day I had to swerve on the motorbike to miss a blue tongue lizard. Another day the dogs were running along and this thing flew up [under the bike] and I thought it was a big stick. It was a brown snake. There's echidnas, swamp wallabies, kangaroos are laid on.''
Gold Creek Station stands on 49 hectares of the Starrs' land subject to a 99-year lease, while 526 hectares is covered by a 20-year lease, with a three-month withdrawal clause, leaving them no security to improve the land. They are also prohibited from improving pasture because of the impact on native flora. They rely more heavily on tourism.
''I love the block of land,'' Mr Starr said. ''It's not just a job, I want to look after it to be the best it can be.''
Consultation will be advertised on March 23, and begin on March 25 for 28 days.