Signs of post-drought recovery on Bon Bon

Wayne and I have been at Bon Bon for 8 short months. I say short because it has not given her enough time to trust us completely with her secrets, not enough time to know how she works and what she wants from us, but enough time to feel her gratitude as Bush Heritage works to restore her to all she can be.

Having come from a comfortable suburb with all the conveniences I took a lot of services for granted, including rubbish removal. Now we are living on reserve, things are not quite so easy. What is brought in reserve stays on reserve to be re-used, unless we can find another way to remove it.

A bee survey conducted in 2010 has yielded six new bee species. Identification isn’t always easy: there are 1650 described bee species, with keys to only half of them. For species not in keys, the only avenue is to compare them with type specimens in collections.

We always talk about the weather, and lately there’s been a lot of it to talk about. In South Australia there have been significant rainfall events over most of the state’s arid lands. At Bon Bon we’ve had over 60 mm of rain over two weeks, which has changed the landscape in so many ways.

Bon Bon Station Reserve is home to what is believed to be the northern most population of Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats. This population also holds the distinction of existing in one of the lowest rainfall zones across the species’ distribution, recording an average of just 150 mm annually.

While dust storms have been a regular occurrence across much of Australia's rangelands, at Bon Bon cryptogams are replacing heavily impacted bare soil and perennial grasses are coming back.

The Conversation recently published an article about the devastating impact that rabbits have had and continue to exert on Australia plants, wildlife and landscapes.

I'm completing my PhD with the Spatial Sciences Group in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Adelaide in collaboration with Bush Heritage Australia. My research will be conducted at Bush Heritage’s Bon Bon and Boolcoomatta reserves in South Australian.

In the past four-and-a-half years living on Bon Bon Reserve, we've had to evacuate for rocket launches, live firing trials and now the return and landing of the Hayabusa II – a Japanese spacecraft carrying the Sample Return Capsule from the asteroid Ryugu!

One of the most anticipated events on the calendar for our South Australian reserves is small vertebrate trapping. These surveys provide the opportunity to eyeball some of the lesser encountered critters that roam through our landscapes. This year on Bon Bon, after two years of drought we've finally had decent rainfall so we were all excited by what the surveys might find.

How a fox stomach containing 63 centipedes could hold the key to understanding the effectiveness of feral predator management.

European Rabbits have a high impact on our conservation targets at Bon Bon. They compete with native herbivores for resources, supress native vegetation and provide a reliable food source for foxes and cats.

Eleven fox scats collected on Bon Bon Station Reserve by our South Australian Arid Rangelands Ecologist Graeme Finlayson late last year were sent away for analysis to get a better picture of what is on the menu at the reserve.

This year I was lucky enough to be accepted as a volunteer for the annual fauna trapping on Bon Bon Station Reserve. I'm a member of the 'Newcastle cluster' of Bush Heritage supporters – a small but keen group prepared to travel great distances to volunteer. So it was with great excitement that we set off on the long trek to Bon Bon in November.

The rains finally came. Last night we listened to the thunderstorms go over and the rain falling on the roof, and couldn’t remember the last time we heard rain like that... We woke up to the creek flowing behind the house and the chorus of birds chirping and FROGS croaking. All up we got 44.8mm, which is the biggest single rainfall event in the past 10 years.

As summer hits in full force, volunteer Jane reflects on her time caretaking at Bon Bon Reserve earlier this year with fellow volunteer Ronnie.

A landmark restoration project on Bon Bon is helping native species to bounce back.

I volunteered at Bon Bon over Christmas and after my jobs were done around the homestead, my husband and I would take off with our head torch, camera, water and GPS and we wandered along the sandy tracks, in search of one of my favourite reptiles - geckos.

My early days as a wildlife ecologist were spent driving around spotlighting on the back of a ute in the Murraylands of South Australia, chasing down Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats to learn what we could about this iconic Australian species. For me it was a life-shaping experience.

Sitting under this Western Myall and looking out over the salt lake is one of my favourite spots to stop for lunch and is luckily exactly the halfway mark when I do my rounds, checking the camera monitoring grid on Bon Bon Station Reserve.

Bon Bon is within the traditional lands of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara community and this year marks 10 years since Bush Heritage Australia acquired the Bon Bon Station pastoral lease.

I work in the Bush Heritage Melbourne office but for 3 weeks of January, along with my colleague Paul Young, I took up a caretaking role at Bon Bon Station Reserve in northern South Australia. Besides continuing with the work we normally do at the Melbourne office, we took on caretaking tasks around the reserve. Caretaking at Bon Bon Reserve could not have been more fun for a couple of novice birdos.

Is there such a thing as having too much fun in conservation work? We don't think so ... We had it ALL last week during the reptile and small mammal survey event on Bon Bon Station Reserve.

Kate Taylor and husband Clint live on and manage our Bon Bon Reserve (SA). She recently noticed these creepy and dangerous sacks - home to Processionary Catepillars (Ochrogaster lunifer).

When the chance presented itself to caretake Bon Bon Station Reserve, Michael ​Uhrig jumped at the opportunity. He got on the phone and asked his mother June to join him - remote caretaking roles have a minimum requirement of two people, in-line with basic remote area safety protocols - you always need backup!

The May fauna survey at Bon Bon Station Reserve this week was full of delights. Field Officer Kate Taylor provides an update from the reserve.

One the less glamorous but necessary jobs for staff who live and work on remote reserves, is the management of household rubbish and other waste. Another is keeping infrastructure (such as visitors' quarters, machinery sheds, workshops, etc.) well maintained. We call these jobs our 'Hector' (trash collector) and 'Sadie' (cleaning lady) jobs. Fortunately over the years we've had a lot of help with them from keen volunteers.

Various infiltration and soil erosion mitigation techniques have been applied in some areas on Bon Bon Station Reserve over the past few years, where we've had the tools (and advice) available to start a repair process. We've some attached photos here to show the results so far.

While taking a walk around a clay pan we were very surprised to see a small snail in a tiny puddle of water leftover from the last rain. Our species list for aquatic (or water-loving) species is very short, as this is one of the driest habitable landscapes in Australia.

At Bon Bon Station Reserve (South Australia) in the country's arid zone, there's a lot of baseline data being collected. One of these data sets is on the abundance and diversity of small mammals and reptile species that live in some of Australia's most harsh conditions.

While out in the field on Bon Bon Reserve, where I work as a Field Officer, Aaron Fenner (South Australian Rangeland Alliance Ecologist) and I were super excited to spot this amazing lizard – Moloch horridus, otherwise well known as the 'Thorny Devil'. It's a new species record for the reserve!

An amazing array of yellows, white, purples, blue-greens and reds have recently brightened the often subdued colours of the arid-zone landscapes across outback South Australia.

Reducing rabbit habitat by ripping warrens has been the focus of our conservation work at Bon Bon Station Reserve over the past two months.

Peter and Margie Calder are much valued volunteers. Over the past few years they've volunteered over 20 weeks of their time to their 'local reserve' – Bon Bon Station (it's only a day's drive away). They wrote this blog entry after completing their 8th placement at Bon Bon.

It's time to look back on 2015 and share some of the seasonal happenings and everyday events that shaped the year at Bon Bon Station Reserve. It's a real privilege to live and work in this amazing arid environment and to have the opportunity to experience and interact with nature.

Out on Bon Bon Station Reserve, the heat can sear your skin and leave you breathless. And yet this massive piece of land, which rivals the size of Sydney, is home to some of Australia’s most extraordinary creatures like the southern hairy-nosed wombat and the rare chestnut breasted whiteface. Here's how we manage wildfire risk for Bon Bon’s diverse plants and animals.

Bon Bon Station Reserve in South Australia is a true outback marvel, an expansive landscape dotted with shimmering salt lakes, red dune sands supporting mulga trees, open ironstone plains studded with stately myall trees and stunningly beautiful expanses of pearl bluebush. Our challenge is to protect it from invasive Buffel Grass.

Two new bird species have been added to the Bon Bon bird list by a group of 19 dedicated bird watchers who volunteered some time at Bon Bon to check up on the local bird life over the Easter weekend.

A new long-term monitoring program using remote infra-red cameras on both Boolcoomatta and our Bon Bon Reserve will help protect vulnerable natives such as the plains wanderer from feral foxes and cats.

Nicky Rolls, together with her friend Saraan Finney, have volunteered on a Bush Heritage Australia reserve each year since 2007. They spent this year at Bon Bon Reserve in South Australia’s arid rangelands.