Nathan Males manages the Conservation Partners program

Winter is a quiet time for land management in the southern states; a time for taking stock and making plans for the coming year. In the north however, work continues apace while the days are pleasant for hard work.

Nowhere is this work more evident than at Carnarvon Station Reserve in central Queensland. Here the Volunteer Rangers, a very important part of our Conservation Partners’ program, have worked on many projects over the last three months. John and Jenni Pass have fenced one of the springs, preventing further degradation by pigs; Graham Wrightson and Otto Fischer have mapped the roads using Global Positioning System coordinates and gathered information for the visitor’s guide; Carmel Kerwick and Tom Verkaaik brought the road-signs they had constructed at home and installed them at the Reserve and Bob Cochrane, Kel Allison and Brian Thicknesse have built tank stands and a propagation house to grow plants for regeneration, painted roofs and repaired water pipes. Our sincere thanks go to them all.

The enthusiasm for the Volunteer Rangers’ program at Carnarvon Station Reserve has been astounding and it is now booked up until mid 2003.With more accommodation planned, hopefully we can increase the number of volunteer rangers at the Reserve at any one time. Tarcutta Hills Reserve near Wagga Wagga in New South Wales will be the next reserve to have such a program. More on that in the next newsletter.

Our limited resources mean we will always need your help in the care and improvement of the reserves. This year, we especially need assistance with weed control, fence maintenance and ecological research and monitoring at nearly every reserve.

Above: Carnarvon Station Reserve. PHOTO: WAYNE LAWLER/ECOPIX
Left: John and Jenni Pass fencing the spring. PHOTO: JOHN AND JENNI PASS