It's hoped Troppo and Hope will help boost the numbers of their endangered species in the wild.
Troppo the southern cassowary's 1,400-kilometre journey from the Gold Coast to Townsville will be well worth it if Hope finds him to be a suitable mate.
Jordan Mountney is a birdkeeper at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and runs the national breeding program for the southern cassowary.
"Troppo has been living with us since 1993. Unfortunately, we haven't had a huge amount of success with him, so we thought we'd send him up here," Mr Mountney says.
"Hopefully, sparks fly."
Mr Mountney says one of the biggest problems with captive populations is the limited genetic pool to choose from when finding a match for the animals.
"When we are pairing birds, we look at the genetics and the lineage to make sure these birds are suited to each other," he says.
Mr Mountney says the main purpose of the breeding program is to make an "insurance population".
"So that if, God forbid, something happens to the birds in the wild, we have a large amount of information that we have learnt and found from those birds that we can then use to hopefully recover the species," he says.
"I think he's going to be pretty smitten with her. They seem like they'll be a very good pairing.
"They might not hit it off right off the bat, kind of like people. You can't just put two of them in the same room and hope for the best. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get to know each other."
As well as good lineage, Hope also has ties to the local military.
Since 2018, Private Hope Tenacious has been the official mascot for the 11th Combat Service Support Battalion.
"We're very conscious of the pairings that we make, making sure that those animals are suitable both from a compatibility point of view and from a genetic point of view," Mr Mountney says.
"I would be over the moon if he had some babies.
"I think he's got it in him to raise some babies to adulthood.
"Then hopefully those babies can be distributed through some of the facilities in Australia to make more pairs.
"It's super important that we can perfect the techniques and the husbandry to create sustainable populations in captivity."
Troppo travels to Townsville
Mr Mountney says the logistics of getting a cassowary from the Gold Coast up to Townsville "is not one of the easiest things to do".
The 31-year-old bird had to be transported by road in a temperature-controlled vehicle.
"The crates we put them in don't fit on an airplane," Mr Mountney says.
"He's come from the Gold Coast — he might have that influencer mindset, who knows?"
Beau Peberdy, general manager at Billabong Sanctuary, says Troppo's reception so far has been fairly positive.
"Hope saw him through the fence, and there's been no aggressive behaviour," Mr Peberdy says.
"They have a low-frequency sound that we can't hear, but they can hear each other. She started making some very inquisitive noises.
"Hope let out a sound we haven't heard before. Normally it's a very loud bellow that travels through the forest quite quickly.
"This vibration was different to any other noise she's made. It wasn't aggressive; it was quite unique.
"We think that can only be a good thing."
Mr Peberdy says the breeding season goes until the end of November, but it may be a little longer until there are any eggs.
"If we're lucky and these two get along, next year they'll hopefully start mating," he says.
"They may lay a clutch of eggs and 50 days later we might see some little chicks."
