What we’re doing
Carnarvon Station was a cattle station for 140 years, so our first priority was removing stock to protect the grasslands and sensitive natural springs.
Conservation involves a lot of the resource-intensive work that might take place on a farm – boundary fences are needed to keep out stock. Access tracks have to be maintained and feral animals and weeds managed.
Significant run-away erosion has been stabilised and infrastructure such as the historic homestead have been restored so staff can live on reserve and maintain its assets.
Some of the precious alluvial grasslands and grassy woodlands have been cropped in the past and in the process they were infested with weeds such as Johnson Grass and Buffel Grass. With help from volunteers, these have been held in check while the native species regained hold.
Removing feral horses and pigs has also been important. Horses destroy shelter for ground-nesting birds and other wildlife, cause erosion, and trample springs and watercourses, ruining important turtle and frog habitat. Pigs root up earth around the springs, fouling the water and degrading the wetland habitats encircling the springs.
Planned burns reduce the extent of wildfires threatening life and property. They allow for the retention of vegetation islands within burns as refuges and arks for wildlife.
Our results
Grasslands are now dominated by native species. So much so that we're now harvesting Bluegrass seeds to sell to other local landowners for use in rehabilitating cleared or degraded grasslands in the surrounding region.
Planned burns have seen a mix of species return across the valleys. The Poplar Box and coolibah woodlands that were cleared are regrowing rapidly. Those that were spared clearing, some still showing scar trees from precolonial times, are now in a varied sea of native grasses.
The most spectacular difference has been in the upland coolibah and ironbark woodlands. Here the removal of feral horses has seen bare earth return to dense grass and herbs. The return of managed burns has also seen acacias return to the mid-storey of the woodlands.