Small mammal research at Naree

Field report from the Naree and Yantabulla reserves bird survey. Now Birdlife Australia and Bush Heritage have 5 years of data, including 126 species recorded in this survey.

A landmark conservation covenant with NSW Government’s Biodiversity Conservation Trust will provide additional permanent protections to our Naree Station Reserve – and neighbouring Yantabulla Station, which is owned by South Endeavour Trust. The deal underscores the importance of private land conservation in Australia.

During the Easter holidays, a Budjiti Cultural Camp saw 20 Budjiti people on country. A trip to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies also marked a significant step towards reviving language and culture.

Being presented with a wire winder wouldn’t excite everyone but knowing that we were in for a week or two of fence removal at Naree Reserve, we thought it was pretty good!

Australian scientists, in collaboration with Bush Heritage and other conservation groups, have built a world-first acoustic recording network that will change the nature of ecological monitoring forever.

On Monday 28 December a fire, caused by a lightning strike from a recent thunderstorm, started on a neighbouring property to the west of Naree Station Reserve on Budjiti country in north​ western New South Wales. Thankfully, it was quickly contained.

Pelicans in the driveway, thousands of kilometres from the sea…what exactly does Naree Station Reserve look like when birds come to breed?

The rains have come to Naree, on Budjiti country in far western NSW. In fact, in March we had 116ml in a single day, which is one of the single biggest falls in the area in over 30 years. On top of that, floodwaters have been flowing in down the Warrego River and Cuttaburra Creek.

Mulga is one of those unusual plants that sheep and cattle will eat, so it has disappeared from a lot of the old cattle properties. We’ve owned Naree for seven years now — before that it was a sheep station — and we’re trying to allow the Mulga here to regenerate but it takes a long time to grow.

Good birding; important work; challenging and harshly beautiful environment; a very companionable group – the core elements of a really rewarding expedition.

At Naree Station Reserve, water is as precious and rare as gold. Our job: to make sure that when the water comes – either from the sky or down the rivers – the land is ready.

'Back o’ Bourke' as a metaphor for a place very far from anywhere was coined for a reason. It took an hour long flight and a four-hour drive just to get to Bourke, and then another two hours on mostly dirt roads to get to the 'back' of it – Naree Reserve. But although Naree is literally 'back o’ Bourke', it rewards those with the determination to get there with a rich experience.

Naree, in Northern NSW, holds beauty and life in both the dry and the wet. But the wet helps us understand how well our management strategies are working. A recent visit has let me see a side of Naree that shows the life that sits dormant in between drinks.

Last Tuesday, around 30 members of the Budjiti community travelled to our Naree Reserve in New South Wales to return a collection of cultural artefacts back on country.

Natalie Caulfield recently volunteered at Naree to help Justin McCann with his PhD research. This trip involved recording the abundance of small mammals - specifically dunnarts.

Bush Heritage volunteering opened my eyes to a landscape that I could never have imagined. As we turned through the gate, I felt like we'd landed on the moon. We'd been driving for six hours, having refuelled at Bourke before the final 170km of dirt road to Naree Station.

Braving monsoonal rains and searing heat, PhD student and Bush Heritage Environmental Research Scholarship recipient Justin McCann is unlocking the secrets of Naree Station Reserve.

Kathleen Davies and Brian Redman answered the call to volunteer at Naree Station, helping UNSW PhD student Justin McCann in his studies.

Naree and Yantabulla stations have many iconic symbols of the Australian bush, and one of the most noticeable as you drive around the two properties is 'the mulga' – silvery grey acacia shrubs and trees growing on brilliant red sandy soils.

Our volunteer botanists, John and Vanessa Hunter, found more than interesting plants on their last visit to Naree Station in April this year – pictured is a Ringed Brown Snake (Pseudonaja modesta) encountered during a monitoring trip. Listed as an endangered species in New South Wales the snake's habitat has suffered severe fragmentation, degradation and loss, and the species on which it preys – skinks – are declining for the same reasons.

Phillip Eulo, his daughter Kiara and grand-daughters recently visited extinct artesian spring sites at Yantabulla station with Bush Heritage manager David Akers. The Eulo family are from the Budjiti people, recognised Traditional Owners of the Paroo-Warrego region, which overlays the Qld-NSW border. The site pictured is especially poignant for the family as Phil's aunty Ruby Eulo was born under a bloodwood tree at a camp on a sand hill about 500 metres from where the family are seen standing, more than 80 years ago.

The traditional owners of Naree Station are the Budjiti People. Their ancestral lands along the Paroo River span two states – far western NSW and over the border into Queensland. Last Tuesday was a momentous day as the Budjiti, or Paroo River People, celebrated their native title determination in Queensland over 11,000 square kilometres southwest of Cunnamulla.

Through an innovative new partnership with South Endeavour Trust, Bush Heritage Australia has begun managing Yantabulla Station adjacent to our Naree Reserve. These properties sit at the heart of the Paroo-Warrego wetlands – the last remaining free-flowing river catchment in the Murray-Darling Basin.