Bush Heritage fire program earns best-practice endorsement
We're the first conservation not-for-profit to receive endorsement for our fire management from the WA government's Office of Bushfire Risk Management.
Bush Heritage supporters have the opportunity to help protect and support Bush Heritage's management of a new reserve – Wanarra. Nearing the size of King Island, it neighbours our existing Charles Darwin Reserve and is home to many threatened ecological communities, including Salmon Gum and York Gum woodlands.
A chance to protect and manage a vast landscape of contrast and threatened diversity in Western Australia.
Dawn breaks and the birds arrive before the heat. Forest Red-tailed Black-cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso) call from the eucalypt canopy, while Willie Wagtails (Rhipidura leucophrys) flitter through the homestead yard.
Covering the traditional lands of the Widi Mob and Badimia People of the Yamatji Nation, Country wakes on Wanarra Station, 220 km south-east of Geraldton, Western Australia. As the sun rises, the light catches the glossy leaves of ancient Salmon Gums (Eucalyptus salmonophloia) standing tall next to sprawling York Gums (Eucalyptus loxophleba).
Wanarra spans 107,000 hectares and shares a 50-km fenceline with Charles Darwin Reserve. But its significance isn’t just about size. In a region where most native vegetation has been cleared and less than 4% remains protected, it's a precious remnant of what once was.
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Landholders Christine Lawrence and Richard Hamilton are passionate about Wanarra's continued recovery. By Andy McGregor.
Current owner, Richard Hamilton, measures time here by the number of scorching summers he has endured – 27 in total – evidencing his patience and dedication. Richard’s connection to the land runs deep. His family purchased Wanarra in 1983, running sheep and goats on the station. After working away, Richard returned in 2006. The dry years had taken a toll. Grazing pressure was increasing.
Extending a decade of landcare in the Mid-West of Western Australia
So, Richard decided to reshape Wanarra’s future and destock the station. For over a decade, it has been left to recover. Since then, native grasses have returned and shrubs once grazed down have survived. In areas once bare, eremophilas, melaleucas and sandalwood are regenerating.
“Nature is the best repairer,” Richard says. When he began thinking about retirement another question loomed – what would happen to Wanarra? Selling it for pastoral use would risk undoing years of recovery. He wanted this process to continue, and for the land to be protected, forever. Knocking on the door of his neighbours, Bush Heritage Australia became a potential solution.
For Bush Heritage ecologist Fiamma Riviera, Wanarra represents a rare opportunity to strengthen an entire landscape.
“It's like the final piece in a jigsaw,” she says.
– Fiamma Riviera, Bush Heritage ecologist“Sitting directly beside Charles Darwin Reserve, it would create a single, unified reserve of more than 175,000 hectares.”
Beyond those boundaries, Wanarra would connect a conservation area of more than one million hectares, driving landscape-scale connectivity, function and resilience.
Zooming back into the property itself, this landscape is shaped by ever-changing seasons and remarkable diversity.
“It’s a place of contrast,” says Shelley Foster, Healthy Landscapes Manager for the Mid West. “It can be very harsh. Then, if you see it in the right season, it’s covered in wildflowers.”
Across Wanarra the soil changes from red to yellow. Granite outcrops shift to saltbush plains and on to vast salt lakes. The foliage drifts between intriguing looking, purple Samphire (Tecticornia verrucosa), to golden grasses and the twists of York Gum woodlands. “You see so many systems coming together,” adds Shelley.
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Rocky outcrop at Wanarra. By Andrew Burrows.
Refuge for threatened native species in the face of climate change
Located in a transition zone between the temperate south-west and the arid interior rangelands, Wanarra brings together ecosystems and species that rarely meet.
“This is really important, particularly in the face of climate change, because it would mean we have more flexibility for landscapes and systems to adapt,” explains Fiamma. Southern Wanarra lies within the globally recognised South-West Biodiversity Hotspot and the Wheatbelt, one of the most biologically rich and threatened regions on Earth.
It’s home to threatened species such as Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata), as well as lesser-known life, such as the Shield-backed Trapdoor Spider (Idiosoma nigrum) and semi-parasitic sandalwood species.
The Mongers Lake complex extends into Wanarra and is internationally recognised for migratory waterbirds.
“When rare flooding events occur, the lake transforms from a hard, crusty white pan to hundreds of kilometres of shimmering water,” says Fiamma. “Dormant eggs hatch, food becomes abundant, and nomadic birds such as Banded Stilts (Cladorhynchus leucocephalus) arrive from hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away. Even Black Swans (Cygnus atratus) have been recorded nesting here.”
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Shelley Foster and Fiamma Riviera measuring an old eucalypt at Wanarra. Photo Andy McGregor.
The period of destocking means it is a landscape already on a path of recovery.
“That decade of care is a gift of time,” Fiamma says. “It would allow us to focus on managing other threats like introduced species, fire and climate – rather than just trying to repair damage.”
A place of cultural significance for Traditional Custodians
Wanarra is a living cultural landscape for the Badimia People and the Widi Mob of the Yamatji Nation.
“Wanarra is home to many culturally significant sites, particularly the Mongers Lake complex,” says Sheree Strauss, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Manager.
Before any acquisition, we engage early with Traditional Custodians. The first step is listening to their vision for Country.
Through collaboration with the Badimia Bandi Barna Aboriginal Corporation and the Yamatji Southern Regional Corporation, future activities may include cultural mapping, on-Country trips, ranger involvement and shared land management, including fire.
“It’s important to protect the ecological values,” Sheree says. “But just as important are the cultural heritage values.”
Sheree feels a sense of calm within the changing landscape.
“It doesn’t place demands on you. It’s very peaceful. There is an abundance in textures and colours that change with the seasons,” she says. “You can see the cycles working.”
Wanarra will continue to face challenges – climate change, fire and invasive species among them. But Richard believes if Bush Heritage was able to purchase and begin managing the property, that we have the experience and commitment to meet them.
“I know it won’t be sold again,” he says. “I know there will always be someone here, looking after it.”
Wanarra’s story is not about starting from scratch. It is about taking an opportunity to honour what has already been done – by Country itself, by Traditional Custodians and by one landholder who chose to step back so the land could continue to heal, and be looked after for generations to come.
Our winter fundraising appeal to protect and begin managing Wanarra will begin Wednesday 6 May.
