Dubai-based airline Emirates is to build a AUS$50m (£21.1m, US$36.9m, 31.3m euro) conservation-based, luxury hospitality development in New South Wales, Australia, an hour away from Sydney city centre.

The Emirates sanctuary will cover 3,600 acres (156.8 milion sq ft, 14.6 million sq m) of freehold land in the Wolgan Valley, in what is currently a farming property which borders the Gardens of Stone National Park.

Guest facilities on the new resort will occupy less than 2 per cent of the available land.

The enhancement of the site will include the removal of invasive plants and feral fauna. Emirates will work closely with environmental and government agencies including The Australian Wildlife Conservancy and intends to reintroduce species to the new sanctuary including koalas, spotted-tailed quolls, yellow-bellied gliders and brush-tailed rock wallabies.

The nearby visitor facilities at the Newnes’ Glow-worm tunnel campsite will also be sponsored by Emirates when complete.

The New South Wales resort is expected to have final government approval within three months and is planned to open in 2007.

The Australian property will have a similar ecological blueprint to Emirates’ existing Al Maha Desert Resort, located an hour away from Dubai City, which opened in 1999 and was awarded National Geographic’s World Legacy Award in 2004.

The company also owns the three-year-old Le Méridien Al Aqah Beach Resort in Fujairah and is also currently constructing a DHM800m (AUS$295.9m, US$218m, 180m euro, £120m) hotel on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayeed Road.