Landscape
Carnarvon Station Reserve encompasses a strip about 55km by 10-15km wide along the southern edge of the Ka Ka Mundi section of Carnarvon National Park, following and including most of the Channin Creek valley, a total of about 59 000 ha.
The southern boundary roughly follows the watershed of Channin Creek. The northern boundary is roughly the watershed of the Great Divide. Virtually all the property drains into Channin creek, which ultimately drains into the Warrego River. The range also forms part of the headwaters of the Great Artesian Basin. All streams are seasonal, although there are 35 permanent springs. Some emerge in the main creeklines forming permanent waterholes with short sections of running water.
The hills and undulating plains of the western two-thirds of the Reserve are part of the (Jurassic) sandstone-dominated Carnarvon Ranges sub-region, while the ranges of the eastern third of the Reserve are part of the Buckland Basalts sub-region, where (Permian and Triassic) sediments are capped with basalt flows, minor pyroclastic flows and associated sediments (BMRGG 1967; Sattler and Williams 1999).
Eastern Australian Bird Migration System
Carnarvon Station and the adjoining national parks are part of an archipelago of high-altitude areas found along the Great Dividing Range as it runs through Queensland. These areas provide habitat more akin to that found in the temperate grassy woodlands of south-eastern Australia.
The retention of large areas of woodland along this archipelago is critical to the maintenance of the eastern Australian bird migration system. Migratory birds such as the striated pardalote and the weebill use the northern woodlands of Carnarvon Station and its surrounds as an important food supply during the southern winter. These areas also provide habitat for non-migratory species that have suffered great reductions in population numbers further south. It is critical that large areas of 'temperate' woodland be conserved in this region if these species are to have a secure future.