As a long-term Barham resident, I am not able to verify the 25 years someone suggested that the ostriches have been there, but that’s probably right. I have certainly seen them breed, with clutches of young ones and I have counted 25 individuals on one occasion. The farm has changed owners recently but the new owners seem content to let them wander freely as did the previous owner. Lashbrook Rd also is the best place I know to find chestnut-crowned babblers. You need to drive to the very end and without going thru the gate into the farm at the end of the road, look around there. The c-c babblers are usually in the box and saltbush scrub around the watercourse on the East side of the road. The road also afforded excellent displays last Summer of Rufous and Brown Songlarks along with Singing Bushlark, allowing me to compare and contrast as they were all in the one area along the fenceline about half way down in the Dillon-bush grassland.
Geoff Leslie
