Get involved
Get involved
A Constance Conservation Initiative
Project Ark One is Australia's next great wildlife conservation endeavour, built on a proven, profitable zoo and open to a select few who help shape it from the very beginning.
The race we are losing
By the time you finish reading this, another species somewhere on Earth moves one step closer to extinction.
Not because people don't care, but because conservation is losing a race against time.
These are not predictions. They are happening now.
The question has changed
Wildlife doesn't need another fundraiser. It needs a new model.
Is your organisation willing to take a stand?
Who we are
Constance Conservation has grown from nothing to around 25 staff in under three years, with genuine in-house expertise across animals, reptiles, conservation and land management, an established conservation network, and a technology and business-development team.
The opportunity
On the Darling Downs, a gate opens each morning onto something that took twenty years to build. Animals from four continents. The only pride of African lions in Queensland. Breeding programs recognised internationally, and a licence and accreditation a newcomer would spend years trying to earn. The family who built it are ready to hand it on, and they want it in the hands of people who will protect what they started.
Project Ark One begins here, with an acquisition rather than an appeal. A zoo with the potential to advance conservation endlessly, unshackled from the bureaucracy and the waiting that comes with depending on donations, volunteers and grant rounds. A business that can build and reinvest on its own terms, moving at the pace the world actually demands. Make conservation profitable and you make it scalable.
A turning point in conservation, a business which reinvests in the restoration of the natural world to leave a meaningful and lasting legacy alongside those who share our vision.
The plan
What Darling Downs Zoo has never had is the capacity to become everything the site and its animals could support. Project Ark One acquires the zoo and repositions it around conservation first, funded by a business run properly. Here is what moves from day one.
The existing keeper team is retained and promoted from within. It protects continuity of care for the animals, and the zoo's ZAA accreditation on transfer.
An experienced zoo director and a hospitality operator, so the business no longer depends on its owners being on site.
The family who built this place remain lifelong advisors through handover, transferring two decades of operating knowledge. The Queensland exhibition licence carries over.
The zoo's existing charitable Foundation is retained and its name preserved, continuing the breeding and species-preservation programs under its own mandate.
Encounters, tours, events and education are activated on land and animals already owned, so growth builds on the gate rather than waiting on new facilities.
Professional management replaces owner dependency, and the costs that came with the old ownership structure fall away at settlement.
Conservation and community are the heart of this plan, and the reason the vendors favour us. It is why they named us their preferred buyer.
The vision
To become an internationally recognised conservation and eco-tourism destination where breeding programs flourish, visitors become advocates and businesses become part of a lasting global legacy.
Not simply a place where people come to see animals. A place where they become part of saving them.
The foundation
Darling Downs Zoo is already profitable and cash-generative. Almost all of its income comes from the front gate, which means the upside is largely untapped.
Regional wildlife destinations that combine conservation with immersive stays and events attract growing audiences, and serious capital. Project Ark One takes that proven model further.
An invitation to lead
A business paying for itself and a business being bought are two different things. Founding partnerships are the first source of acquisition capital, ahead of debt and ahead of private investment, because partnership is capital that costs no equity and no control. It is why conservation stays the purpose of this business rather than a line item in somebody else's return.
We're inviting a small number of visionary organisations to help shape one of the world's most ambitious conservation destinations, from the very beginning. As a Founding Partner, your organisation may enjoy:
To habitats, conservation precincts and breeding programs.
For directors, employees and their families.
Private wildlife encounters found nowhere else.
Corporate retreats, conferences and leadership events.
Conservation and volunteer experiences with real purpose.
National and international reach through TV and documentary.
Strong, measurable, genuinely meaningful impact.
As one of the organisations that made it possible.
This is more than sponsorship. It's the opportunity to align your brand with one of Australia's most important conservation efforts.
This is just the beginning
Our mission to protect and restore the world's wild places and species extends beyond this initiative. This first step in acquiring the zoo and transforming it into a place of wonders and conservation will go on to open doors abroad for us to have an impact across the world.
Your invitation
Every organisation hopes to leave a legacy. Few have the opportunity to help save one.
Call Cameron or Ryan. They will tell you what Project Ark One can become, and the role your organisation could play in building it.
We'll send the full Project Ark One proposal to your inbox.
Reviewed and sent personally. The proposal is shared in confidence.