Bush Heritage News Summer 2005 ABN 78 053 639 115 www.bushheritage.org Lake Eyre.The colours and the In this issue Our latest purchase vastness of the landscape took my Cravens Peak – another bit of the breath away. Rich ochres of every hue and cobalt-blue sky seemed to Anchors in the landscape Outback stretch into infinity. Charles Darwin Reserve weeding bee Bush Heritage’s latest reserve, I was standing on the edge of the Cravens Peak, is ‘just down the Channel Country, that highly metropolitan Melbourne or Sydney) road’ from Ethabuka Reserve in productive region of Queensland and also the most expensive because far-western Queensland but, as famous for fattening cattle, and for of the ‘value’ of the Channel Country. Conservation Programs Manager this reason so far poorly reserved. We still have a great deal of money Paul Foreman points out, this new I contemplated the significance to raise! pastoral lease is very different of Bush Heritage’s buying and protecting some of this valuable Cravens Peak is now our most diverse On my first visit to Cravens Peak ecosystem at Cravens Peak Station, reserve, in both its geomorphology Station in May this year I stood where the Mulligan River plains and biology. It is an exciting acquisition on an outcrop of the Toko Range are still relatively intact. and presents us with an unprecedented and gazed over the source of the management challenge. Mulligan River.This is one of the On 31 October 2005 Cravens Peak headwaters of the immense Cooper became the 21st Bush Heritage Creek system that braids its way reserve. It is our largest reserve ever Grasslands and creek lines spread out from the rocky Toko Range where foxtails Ptilotis sp. emerge from between the through hundreds of kilometres at over 233 000 hectares (2330 square rocks. PHOTO: PAUL FOREMAN Insets from top: Purple-necked rock of the Outback to finally spill into kilometres or about the size of wallaby. PHOTO: AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM Plains-wanderer. PHOTO: TOM WHELLER 1 Waterhole on the eastern boundary drainage lines, swamps and claypans of Ethabuka Reserve. provide an abundance of habitats for the desert wildlife. Spinifex Tr iodia The Toomba Range, with its gorges, grasslands on the dunes are some of lies to the west, the result of upheavals the most important habitats for small along a massive ancient fault line. mammals. In these oldest rocks is located the conspicuous mesa ‘Cravens Peak’, Once all the cattle have been removed, for which the property is named. the grasslands so prized by the pastoral The dunes and swales that cover industry will be able to grow and set much of the east of the reserve are seed without the pressure of stock, LANDSCAPE just a thin veneer of wind-blown sand for the first time in decades. deposited in very recent geological Striking parallel dunes, plateaus, low times on these older sandstones. WILDLIFE ranges of ancient sandstone, and grassland and woodland plains make VEGETATION Cravens Peak has three main landscapes up this magnificent landscape. types – dunes, ranges and plains – The Mulligan River carves its way Most of the 21 known vegetation and each has its own characteristic along the eastern boundary of the communities on Cravens Peak are wildlife. Over 220 species have been reserve through soft rocks that were either unreserved or poorly reserved recorded. As at Ethabuka, the dunes formed under the ocean about 500 in Queensland.The property supports are home to a great diversity of small million years ago and are subject to some unique vegetation types mammals, including the carnivorous erosion.The adjacent Toko Range – including hummock grassland with mulgara, and one of the richest reptilian at 280 metres above sea level, one of red mallee Eucalyptus pachyphylla. faunas of any desert area in the world. the highest points of the region – is formed of harder, more resistant Short open grasslands with saltbush; Recent rain filled the ephemeral wetlands and brought sandstone. Not far south of the Mitchell Astrebla grasslands; shrublands of a flush of wildflowers to the dunes. PHOTO: WAYNE LAWLER/ECOPIX Insets from top: Fat-tailed pseudantechinus. PHOTO JIRI homestead the Toko Range disappears acacia, hakea and emu bush Eremophila; LOCHMAN/LOCHMAN TRANSPARENCIES Flowering foxtails Ptilotis sp. beneath the Simpson Desert sands, and vegetation communities associated on the grasslands. PHOTO: WAYNE LAWLER/ECOPIX and the river meanders on to Pulchera with the rocky ranges, waterholes, 2 The plains, with sparse short grass and Grazing reduces or even removes herb vegetation, provide habitat for a the vegetation needed for food and nationally vulnerable bird, the plains- shelter by small mammals, ground- wanderer. Small animals such as the nesting birds and reptiles. Even some fat-tailed pseudantechinus occur in birds of prey are affected, as the cattle the ranges, well east of the centre of prevent the regeneration of trees their distribution in the MacDonnell suitable for nesting. Ranges near Alice Springs. THE FUTURE As part of the conditions of sale, stock Cravens Peak is entirely surrounded Suitable habitat exists for the bilby, will be removed from Cravens Peak by pastoral leases. It will soon be an purple-necked rock wallaby and within twelve months of settlement. island of protected habitat without spectacled hare wallaby and This was a necessary concession to cattle, unprecedented in western unconfirmed records suggest that secure the property and was considered Queensland. It will provide a we may find them at Cravens Peak. acceptable given our long-term vision. permanent refuge for an extraordinarily We may even discover the elusive diverse assemblage of arid-zone night parrot. Fire is also a major threat.Too many animals and plants including many or too few fires change the extent and species and vegetation communities THREATS AND MANAGEMENT structure of woodland communities. of national importance. Wildfires eliminate the ground cover, Overgrazing and trampling by cattle exposing ground-dwelling animals Once the homestead is properly are the main threats to the vegetation to predators such as cats and foxes. equipped, supporters will be able communities, and thus the wildlife, Under Bush Heritage management, to visit and explore this magnificent at Cravens Peak.Wetlands and water- strategic ‘patch-burning’ will create new reserve.A great deal of work lies courses are especially vulnerable.The a mosaic of small burnt areas that ahead, both in raising the necessary bores, which provide readily available will give variety and stability to the funds and establishing the reserve.We surface water, also sustain artificially landscape and reduce the likelihood would love your help.You can help high numbers of native herbivores. of broad-acre wildfires. us to buy and protect Cravens Peak by sending your donation or, if you Cat and fox control will begin in enjoy the desert landscape, you can conjunction with control programs get involved as a volunteer ranger run by our neighbours.Weed or in future working bees. infestations, especially of buffel grass, will be managed once the stock has Clockwise from top: Paul Foreman with foxtails Ptilotis sp. been removed. Rain brings a green flush to the desert landscape. Swainson’s pea Swainsonia sp. PHOTOS: WAYNE LAWLER/ECOPIX 3 a healthy temperate river ecosystem. Anchors in the In the same way,we can see that landscape Bush Heritage reserves are not just sanctuaries for plants and animals; Beyond the Boundaries Coordinator they are also important in helping Stuart Cowell gives a long-term to sustain the natural systems of perspective on the role of Bush the regions in which they occur. Heritage reserves in providing Moreover, the reserves are sources a genuine conservation solution of expertise and hope for other conservation workers, and places from There is no doubt that Bush Heritage which to build regional conservation reserves are spectacular places. Each initiatives. In other words, Bush conservation in the wider community, in its own way safeguards some of Heritage reserves are ‘anchors’* in and build on what we had already Australia’s most important plants and the landscape. achieved. animals and the bush on which they rely. But the reserves are also important In Bush Heritage News Autumn 2003 It would take a lifetime of ‘cups of because they provide a conservation Sophie Underwood and I reported tea by a river’ to reach universal ‘focal point’ in their region, a focal on work done by Bush Heritage to agreement about where our efforts point that can nurture conservation determine the strategy that would should be focused.There are always efforts on surrounding properties. produce the most effective conservation other regions, other priorities, other results.That work launched a ‘free and possibilities. However we needed to Let me illustrate this by telling you frank’exchange of views that crystallised start somewhere. In the end, five about a pleasant Saturday in May when into a plan for the future: to focus regions stood out: south-west Western my father and I spent some time our efforts in specific regions rather Australia, the grasslands and grassy clearing the walking track on the than spreading our resources thinly woodlands of southern Australia, the Liffey River Reserve in Tasmania. across the country, and yet to remain midlands of Tasmania, the Channel and Taking a break, we sat sharing a ‘cuppa’ open to broader opportunities. Gulf country of Queensland and the under an old myrtle tree and watched Northern Territory, and the brigalow as a platypus searched methodically The regions we chose had to be under belt and uplands of Queensland. through the sand and pebbles on the immediate threat from a factor or riverbed for a tasty meal. factors that we could influence, protect Opportunities will arise outside these as many significant species as possible, regions, and in fact already have.