• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

BUSH TRACKS Bush Heritage Australia’s quarterly magazine for active conservation Double the impact in outback wetlands A black-winged stilt, photographed here at Naree, is among the native birds to use these wetlands. Photo Peter Morris. On most days if you could see our A major rain event – enough to flood the “At the moment there’s a lot of red sand, Naree Station Reserve, or neighbouring ephemeral wetlands and flip their natural cycle silver trees and very dry grass. The heart Yantabulla Station, it would be hard to into a ‘boom’ – only happens once every five to of it is still wet though,” says Sue Akers. believe the parched outback landscape ten years. In between it’s a very different story. Sue and husband David are our managers transforms into one of Australia’s most at Naree. Walking into the wetlands when they’re breathtaking inland wetlands, teeming dry, as they are now, is an extraordinary Earlier this year we had our first glimpse with water birds. experience. Ancient black box, coolabah since Bush Heritage purchased Naree in These properties sit at the heart of trees and elegant yapunyahs are found 2012 of just how quickly these ephemeral the Paroo-Warrego wetlands (the last around the swamp margins. The deeper you wetlands can transform. remaining free-flowing river catchment go the larger the river wattles and tangled in the Murray-Darling Basin) about lignum shrubs become. In certain spots you In this issue 150km north-west of Bourke in NSW. can see dozens of old nesting platforms left 4 Science: Expanding our horizons behind by previous generations of waterbirds. In this typically harsh ‘boom and bust’ 5 Lessons in nature: our student partners 6 Science at work landscape, where temperatures soar All around you are signs of bird activity 8 BMW Boxers and the Kerr’s bush legacy into the high 40s in summer, water on a scale that’s at odds with the dry 9 Briefs from the blog is often scarce. conditions, and a sense that the land is 10 Volunteering – it’s good for you too! silently waiting for the water to return, 12 Save the date: Blues for the Bush 2015 when it will transform again. Winter 2015 BushHeritage.org.au To Hungerford /Eulo Naree Station Below: Fronting the media at our Scottsdale Reserve in NSW on the launch of our Science Plan. Homestead Photo Annette Ruzicka. Right: Gerard O’Neill. Photo Bec Walton. Yantabulla Swamp Back Creek Swamp Cuttaburra Creek Yantabulla township Yantabulla Station N 5km To Bourke From the CEO Bush Heritage Australia Who we are Bush Heritage Australia is a leading conservation organisation, protecting millions of hectares of We live in a time when there’s never been On page 4 our Science and Research ecologically important land for the better access to knowledge and information Manager, Dr Jim Radford, outlines exactly benefit of nature and all Australians. and yet there is much we still need to know. how we’ll expand our science program and the main areas of research focus. It’s a bold, Why we’re successful Scientists and researchers remain the key ambitious vision and one I look forward It’s our way of working that makes to better informed decisions – which is why to seeing implemented. Bush Heritage Australia so successful we’ve developed our 10-year Science Plan – and makes us optimistic that we – a blueprint to build knowledge, leverage I also want to acknowledge the importance can expand our great conservation our efforts and expand our science capacity. of NAIDOC week in our calendar. It’s work to meet the challenges ahead: coming up in the first week of July and this We use science to inform decisions year’s theme is particularly resonant for us: • We pursue non‑confrontational, about where to work, which species We all stand on sacred ground. pragmatic solutions to and ecosystems to protect, and the most conservation challenges. effective ways to manage issues such In the area of conservation and land as fire, weeds and feral animals. management the Aboriginal and Islander • We work closely with our neighbours communities have a vital role to play with in each community and share the We’re already investing strongly and generations of accumulated knowledge. outcomes and knowledge gained providing leadership in this area, yet Our approach has always been to work for the benefit of all. there are some big challenges ahead. with and alongside Traditional Owners – • Everything we do is informed by Most notably, we need to ensure we have traditional practices and local knowledge good science – aided by our staff the information to respond to future are often highly complementary to our ecologists and science partners. challenges such as climate change, species science-based approach. recovery and changing ecologies (invasive • We have almost 40,000 (and buffel grass across the inland for example). Our partnerships with groups such as growing) committed supporters Wunambal Gaambera in the Kimberley, who enable us to work on a scale One of the ways we plan to do this is Warddeken in Arnhem Land and that matters and to implement by collaboration. We already have many newer partnerships with Bunuba solutions that endure. long-standing research partners, such as and Birriliburu in Western Australia • We partner with Aboriginal Professor Chris Dickman and his University exemplify this approach. communities, other land owners, of Sydney ‘Ratcatchers’ who’ve been non‑profits, businesses and regular visitors to the Queensland desert at Stay in touch via our website and social governments, because we Ethabuka for over 25 years. We also partner media during NAIDOC week, and join know that by working together with post-graduate science students, who us in reflecting on how important these we can achieve so much more. contribute specific expertise to research all enduring relationships are for a healthy around the country. A story on page 5 will and sustainable future. • We buy land, and invest in introduce you to some of these remarkable our partnerships and our young people and their work. growing number of supporters. Our mission is for the benefit of all Australians, forever. Gerard O’Neill, Chief Executive 2 Bush Tracks | Winter 2015 To Hungerford /Eulo Naree Station Below top: The red-kneed dotterel (Erythrogonys cinctus) is among the species that use these wetlands. Copyright Wayne Lawler / AUSCAPE All rights reserved. Homestead Below centre: The glowing reds of a yapunyah tree (Eucalyptus ochrophloia) on Naree. These trees put on a glorious display at Naree and Yantabulla, and only occur over a relatively small area in the Paroo floodplains. Photo Cory Butler. Yantabulla Swamp Below bottom: Reserve Manager David Akers and PhD student Dana Vickers exploring Yantabulla Station. Back Creek Swamp Photo Sue Akers. Cuttaburra Creek Yantabulla township Yantabulla Station N 5km To Bourke Continued from cover In the swamps, the tangled Local rain, backed up by falls over 500km lignum bushes burst into away in Queensland, kick started a mini thousands of delicate white ‘boom’. It took weeks for the rain that fell flowers. Frogs, insects and late last year in the Carnarvon Ranges to creep past Charleville and Cunnamulla, other creatures emerged, and into the lower reaches of the producing a cacophony of Warrego River. night‑time calls. David and Sue were able to watch its arrival With skilled land managers already on Naree as it inched its way slowly down on the ground, it made sense for Bush the Cuttaburra Creek. Heritage to manage Yantabulla Station, “The dry ground is like a sponge,” adds in partnership with South Endeavour Trust, David. “It’s cracking clay and you can watch as one consolidated reserve with Naree. the water when it runs here, disappear into This more than doubles our conservation a crack in the ground for 45 minutes before footprint in the area, and provides major it fills up and moves on to the next crack. efficiencies for managing the properties. But you get a sense of the parched land David and Sue are relishing the chance drinking and how beneficial that must be.” to translate their successes at Naree on Our new partnership to Yantabulla Station. Some of their first activities will be reducing the impact of Through an innovative new partnership feral animals to help restore vital ground with South Endeavour Trust, David and cover in preparation for the next big Sue have also recently begun managing rain event. Yantabulla Station to the south-west of our Naree Reserve. The water that arrived this summer was only about 5 per cent of that needed to South Endeavour Trust already owned spark a major boom, but almost overnight several conservation properties and when seeds that had been dormant in the red we introduced them to Yantabulla it was dust and dry clay beds began germinating, a chance to complement Naree. Together producing a lush carpet of native herbs Please help us conserve the properties protect the entire Back and grasses. precious places Creek Swamp and the delta of the much Throughout Australia we seek to larger Yantabulla Swamp – two of the In the swamps, the tangled lignum bushes burst into thousands of delicate white be influential beyond our borders, most important water bird breeding partnering with private landowners and feeding sites in arid Australia. flowers. Frogs, insects and other creatures emerged, producing a cacophony of and Aboriginal groups to help Tens of thousands of nomadic waterbirds night-time calls. manage their land for conservation. – spoonbills, egrets, ibis, ducks, swans, To help us care for precious Australian avocets, stilts, cormorants, grebes, brolgas, It was enough to show the promise of things to come with Naree and Yantabulla places such as the Yantabulla and pelicans, dotterels – congregate here when Naree Station wetlands, please conditions are right, and waders, some Station’s precious ephemeral wetlands now managed together for conservation.

Load more

  12

Copy Link