Hamelin bio-blitz – trappings & drones

After extensive genetic and behavioural research, Western Grasswrens from sub-populations at Hamelin Station and Francois Peron National Park were mixed together. The translocation was informed by Aline Gibson Vega’s PhD and is part of a collaboration between DBCA, Bush Heritage Australia and the University of Western Australia.

Tenaya Duncan, Conservation and Wildlife Biology PhD student at Murdoch University, is using salvaged pallets, fence posts and corrugated iron in a unique way – as homes for native wildlife on our reserves!

The Easter long weekend was a great start to what will be a busy year for the new team on the ground at Hamelin Outback Station Stay.

A residency at Hamelin Station was a dream come true for artist Janeen Horne. After a chance meeting with Jackie Mahood, Station Stay Manager, she was invited to be the first Artist in Residence at Hamelin Reserve on Malgana country in Western Australia.

Hear from two of our WA volunteers about their recent caretaking experience on our Hamelin Station Reserve.

Remote and undisturbed claypans make the perfect nesting site for native bees to thrive at Hamelin Station, WA.

When it rains, it pours! We recently discovered four Western Quolls (Dasyurus geoffroii) on monitoring cameras at two of our midwest Western Australian reserves over the space of two weeks.

Across a 1500km arc from the Gibson Desert to Shark Bay, researcher Richard McLellan is uncovering the ecological and cultural value of sandalwood.

At Hamelin Station Reserve in mid-west Western Australia, Malgana Rangers are hard at work restoring the land.

A young researcher is learning the language of Western Grasswrens at Hamelin Station Reserve to assist with one of Australia’s most ambitious ecological restoration projects.

Annie and Ian Mayo have been spending the last couple of months removing fences around reserves in WA. On the weekend they reached a huge milestone by reaching 100km of fenceline removed!

Tamarisk (also known as Salt Cedar) are introduced trees from Eurasia and Africa. They can thrive in dry environments and were planted for shade and wind protection around the homestead and shearing shed precinct back when Hamelin was a working sheep station. Today they're considered a weed of national significance.

Hamelin Station Reserve is brimming with birdlife. But if you're not paying close attention, there's one species that can easily be missed – the Western Grasswren. Grasswrens are very poorly understood compared to their glamorous cousins, the fairywrens. It isn’t clear why the Western Grasswren had such a dramatic population decline. Thought to be once found throughout much of WA, this ground-dwelling species is now restricted Peron Peninsula, Hamelin Station and Carbla Station.

Despite our best efforts during previous years' reptile surveys, we haven't yet recorded the elusive Gidgee Skink at Hamelin Station Reserve...

Our Hamelin Station Reserve near Shark Bay, WA is one of the most remote locations on the vast Australian continent to conduct a science gathering during this year's National Science Week.

Ecologist Georgina Gould-Hardwick writes about her time spent submersing herself into Santalaceae science at our Eurardy and Charles Darwin Reserves.

Inspired by stories from the Mulgana Traditional Owners of Hamelin Station Reserve near Shark Bay, Ken and Michelle Judd decided to walk the reserve's coastline.

December 4th marked a great celebration for Malgana people with the consent determination of Native Title in the Shark Bay area including Bush Heritage's Hamelin Reserve and the surrounding World Heritage Area. The Federal Court session was held on the foreshore in Denham at the request of Malgana Traditional Owners and as a sign of respect to the achievement of native title after a long 20-year legal process.

Did you know? There are about 900 species of eucalypts on the planet, with just about all of them occurring exclusively somewhere within Australia. Excitingly for me, and for Bush Heritage Australia, I recently discovered that there are 15 species of eucalypts known to occur on Hamelin Station Reserve - one of my favourite volunteering destinations in the western rangelands near Shark Bay in Western Australia.

A lot of the work we do is only possible because of the contribution of volunteers. However in some cases, when there's more work to be done than time allows and specialised skills are required, we need to turn to professional consultants. This year at Hamelin our schedule meant that we didn't have any qualified staff or volunteers free to complete our small animal monitoring. This led to discussions with the Perth-based environmental consultancy, Biologic.

While staying at Hamelin Outback Station Stay visitors can venture out for the day and explore the beautiful World Heritage Shark Bay area. Steep Point is the most westerly point of the Australian mainland and the Station Stay is the closest place to stay if you wish to visit it for the day.

Remember that amazing, exciting, blood-tingling feeling of anticipation when, as a child, you opened carefully-wrapped birthday or Christmas presents? Well that's how I felt recently, when I downloaded thousands of images from remote-sensing camera-traps recently retrieved from the field at Hamelin Station Reserve.

'Four seasons in one day' - every day - plus a plethora of wonderful wildflowers, kept the adrenalin running among the hardy bunch of botanists, ecologists and keen amateurs who participated in this year's flora surveys on Hamelin Station Reserve.

An insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge have placed Erica Suosaari at the forefront of research into the humble beginnings of life as we know it.

Nature never stops surprising us with her natural abundance of beauty and wildlife. At Hamelin Station Stay the wildflowers are out in force and while the birds are abundant, the song of our favourites - the Chiming Wedgebill – rings out above them all.

Thanks to the Western Australian Wildflower Society's help with collecting, processing, identifying and mounting thousands of plant specimens, we now have a thorough understanding of the unique plant species assemblages of Charles Darwin Reserve and Eurardy Reserve in the Mid-west of Western Australia.

Rex and Gail are fantastic bushie volunteers. They recently completed their first stint as caretakers at Hamelin Station Reserve, where they learnt what a diverse and interesting experience caretaking can be!

This Spring, Ben Parkhurst (Reserves Ecologist for the Mid-West) ran the annual small animal trapping survey at Hamelin Station Reserve. Despite late winter rains and a relatively poor rain season the survey team was still able to add new species to the Hamelin species list.

Follow the Dream: Partnership for Success is a program for high achieving secondary students, supporting them through their studies, ensuring that they have the chance to follow their dreams and have meaningful post-school destinations. I've been working closely with the program in Gerladton for the past two years, discussing how science is applicable to everyday life.

It was wonderful to attend the recent Science Fair at Hamelin Station Reserve and to see the property's old shearing shed once again come alive - with science and learning, and passion and participation. The old weatherboard and corrugated-iron shearing shed 'hung-up its shears' in 2015, when Bush Heritage purchased the 202,644 hectare property on the eastern boundary of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area.

Given its location adjacent to the Shark Bay World Heritage Area it's not surprising that Hamelin Station Reserve in Outback WA is fast building a reputation as a 'go-to hotspot' for bird-watchers. More than 170 species have been recorded on the Reserve thus far, with regulars such as Rainbow Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) and Chiming Wedgebills (Psophodes occidentalis) always popular.

I've just found, or rather 'made' another good reason to visit the Hamelin Station Reserve, located on the edge of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area - the new Homestead Walk Trail...

Annie and Ian Mayo are long-term valued Bush Heritage volunteers. The couple recently spent time travelling around Western Australia and volunteering at different Bush Heritage reserves. Annie sent in the following post and photo of a Wedge-tailed Eagle's evil-looking third eye-lid.

We were thrilled to again host the annual Curtin University Shark Bay field trip at Hamelin. Over the past 20 years Applied Geology Students have made the trek to Shark Bay to examine geology of the southern Carnarvon Basin.

Volunteer Richard McLellan can now add 'Paddy melon picker' to his qualifications after spending a week at Hamelin Station Reserve in Western Australia for some annual leave and a bit of volunteering.

Bush Heritage is taking its renowned science-backed approach underwater to unlock the secrets of Hamelin Pool.

Larissa Lauder and Tony Loechte live at Hamelin Station Reserve with their two small children Harry and Riley. Since the new year the region has experienced high rainfall and the family has been delighted by the sounds of frogs calling. Especially as a couple of the frogs have been previously unrecorded on the property.

Renowned for its natural beauty and scientific significance, the Shark Bay World Heritage Area is home to the Wooramel Bank, which is the largest seagrass bank (4,800km2) in the world. It also has one of the largest and most stable populations of Dugongs, and the largest and most diverse assemblage of modern Stromatolites in Hamelin Pool.

A sunrise start, to live and work like bio-blitzers do, means opening the shutters on our shearing shed quarters at sparrows. Anticipation builds as we convoy half our team out of Hamelin Station Stay and across the south-east of the reserve. The other half take the more arid of sites, where they’ll be looking for reptiles. 

Sticks and pooters (or aspirators) aren't just for show, but form part of an entomologist's critter-trapping tool set. Thwacking a stick against bushes, shrubs and plants while holding an insect net underneath seems like an easy task, but it's also only half the job.

Sandy is a visual and performance artist travelling through remote Western Australia, facilitating the 'Dot on the Land' project. During this time she's running workshops that explore the textures, tones and forms of the cultural and environmental landscape. Hamelin Reserve was her first stop.

The inaugural 'Hamelin Science Fair' was held over the last weekend of the National Science Week. It was a brilliant way to bring together members of the regional environmental and land management organisations, local and regional community and visitors from around Australia to discuss science in the Shark Bay region and surrounds.

Over billions of years, a complex interaction between climate and environment at Hamelin Pool has created the miracle of ‘living fossils’ called stromatolites. These extraordinary natural monuments contain microbes similar to those found in 3,500-million-year-old fossils – the earliest record of life on Earth.

For the vulnerable endemic species found on Hamelin, the old saying “it’s a small world” couldn’t be more apt. With suitable habitat a precious rarity, careful land management could offer a better future for these threatened creatures.

For more than 130 years Hamelin Station Reserve has been a pastoral station, home to sheep and goats. Its new future as a conservation property meant removing stock. A lot of it. Brian Wake and Jock Isdale were the men for the job.

On a property as big as our Hamelin Reserve, challenges abound. But with your help, our team of land managers and ecologists will work together with our neighbours, partners and volunteers to revitalise the landscape.

Hamelin Station Reserve (WA) is already a hive of research activity. Its location and unique ecological values have put it on the scientific map. But this is just the beginning.

Valued volunteer Charlie Nicholson has provided important help in the West for over 10 years. Charlie's just completed his second stint at Hamelin Station Reserve helping us prepare a weeding manual for volunteers. We're extremely lucky to be able to tap into Charlie's knowledge of the region and his great knowledge of plants and weeds of the Rangelands.

Hamelin Pool is indeed one of the most phenomenal places on the planet. I recently had the pleasure of being able to share some of my favourite localities with students from Curtin University. For me it was an incredible experience to be able to share my knowledge of Hamelin Pool with a group of keen, smart students who were keen to learn and thoroughly enjoyed the wonder of the region.

Hamelin Pool is home to the most extensive and diverse actively accreting Stromatolite development in the world – a better understanding of the modern Stromatolites in Hamelin Pool may help offer understanding to life on early Earth.

Recently Hamelin Station had an influx of keen birdwatchers from the Geraldton and Perth Birdlife groups who came to help out with our initial surveys. Our dedicated group set out at 5:30 every morning to cover a range of habitats all over Hamelin. Braving the hot weather we recorded over 100 species in three days which is pretty impressive!