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Naree is a former pastoral property found in one of the least disturbed parts of the Murray-Darling Basin in north-western NSW.
As Australia's largest river basin, spanning across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland, the Murray-Darling Basin is a critical environment to protect and faces numerous threats. Our water sources are the lifeblood of our planet. Protecting them is crucial for healthy ecosystems and a sustainable future.
Naree sits in the Mulga Lands bioregion, 130 km north-west of Bourke. It lies on the Cuttaburra Channels that connect the Paroo and Warrego Rivers at Yantabulla Swamp, which adjoins the property to the west.
In 2015 Yantabulla Station, a property adjoining Naree, was bought for conservation by South Endeavor Trust. With skilled land managers already on the ground, it made sense for us to form a partnership and manage the land as one consolidated reserve.
In 2024 Naree was extended with the purchase of Nil Desperandum, which added 4,090 ha to the south of the reserve and filled an important gap, extending Naree to both sides of the Cuttaburra Creek.
NSW Parks acquired what is now Brindingabba National Park in 2022 and Cuttaburra National Park in 2024. With the additions of these 34,000 ha patches there's now over 100,000 ha of protected bushland in the area.
This is one of the least disturbed and most intact areas of the Murray-Darling Basin. Naree Reserve provides a safe-haven for species that rely on arid-zone wetlands and waterways.
Naree helps protect nationally significant, arid-zone ephemeral wetlands, considered among the top 20 for waterbirds in Australia.
Relatively mild winter temperatures, compared with the rest of NSW and Victoria, make it a refuge for migratory birds forced to leave breeding areas in the cold season.
Water bird populations have been surveyed on Naree and surrounding areas for years by Professor Richard Kingsford. Our own surveys have documented over 187 bird species, and a comparable number of plant species since 2013, several of them vulnerable or endangered under NSW legislation.
The rich mosaic of vegetation, including grasslands, mulga woodlands and mixed woodlands of Belah, Ironwood and Leopardwood, provide refuge in dry times for many native animals including reptiles, small mammals and birds. The addition of Nil Desperandum in 2024 added Coolibah-Black Box Woodlands, which is a rare ecological community and endangered in NSW.
We’ve recorded 15 mammal species, including the vulnerable (in NSW) Striped-faced Dunnart, Sandy Inland Mouse and Little Pied Bat.
The flows of the Paroo River, which feed into Yantabulla Swamp, have been protected from modification since 2003, making it the last free-flowing river in the Murray-Darling Basin.
These wetlands sit in a semi-arid flood zone where rainfall is very erratic, which means they’re often dry for long periods. The land’s ecology reflects the boom and bust cycles typical of the rangelands of inland Australia. Average yearly rainfall is only 300 mm, but highly variable.
Flooding events are unpredictable but when they arrive the plants and animals are adapted to take advantage of every drop of water, often waiting years for its arrival.
Our aim is to reduce total grazing pressure on the property, allowing the natural wetland and woodland habitats to regenerate. Management work includes:
The Budjiti are Traditional Custodians and have close personal connections to the property. Since our purchase of Naree, Budjiti elder Phil Eulo and his family have been helping us understand the property’s history, natural values and cultural connections.
They’ve helped with our environmental and heritage assessments and with our conservation planning. We’re tremendously pleased to have the Budjiti so intimately involved in our conservation work on Naree.
To promote an understanding of their culture, the Budjiti people have produced a booklet describing the traditional uses of local plants.
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– Phil Eulo, Budjiti Traditional Custodian“Bush Heritage is doing what we wanted to do all along – keep our country natural. Now we’ve got the opportunity to bring this back to its natural state... for the new generations, white and black.”
See a full ecological scorecard for Naree Reserve.
Learn more about how we measure our impact.
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There's life at Naree - though it might not look like it on most days. But when the water arrives, either by rain or river, the landscape comes alive.
