Boolcoomatta
Boolcoomatta Reserve is a unique 63,000 ha reserve. After 150 years as a sheep station Boolcoomatta is now being established as a Bush Heritage reserve. We have been on the reserve since July 2006, assisted by some wonderful volunteers. And much has happened already. Bush Heritage ecologists Sandy Gilmore, Paul Foreman and Julian Fennessy have set up 51 ‘ecological outcomes’ monitoring sites so that we can record the changes that occur in the landscape and its wildlife as our new management practices take effect.
Boolcoomatta protects diverse saltbush country and rocky ranges just five hours from Adelaide and one hour west of Broken Hill in eastern South Australia.
Boolcoomatta, a former sheep station, has been carefully and conservatively managed and thus retains outstanding examples of chenopod/saltbush plains, ephemeral streams, wetlands and their wildlife. Saltbush plains can be highly productive for grazing and as a consequence these ecosystems are poorly represented in existing reserves.
It’s an iconic arid landscape where the subtle beauty of the low sprawling plains contrasts with the dramatic Olary Ranges to the west.
Boolcoomatta Reserve lies adjacent to the Bimbowrie National Park. This new park is home to the nationally vulnerable thick billed grasswren, yellow footed rock wallaby and slender bell fruit. By building the area of protected land we will help to enhance the long term viability and importance of both reserves.
Emma and Peter Ashton
Reserve managers July 2008
The Scientific Expedition Group had 45 scientists, students and volunteers to gather baseline data on fauna, flora and archaeological sites throughout the property. Exciting new findings included the discovery of the rare South Australian plant, Australian broomrape, Orobanche cernua and another stand of a rare Acacia.
The Mammal Club of the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia undertook an initial field visit and found some interesting historical subfossils, including skeletal remains of threatened or extinct species. These included the golden bandicoot, Gould’s mouse, stick-nest rat and yellow-footed rock wallaby.