Pullen Pullen’s Night Parrot
For more than one hundred years, the place held a secret: Pullen Pullen is home to the Night Parrot, the elusive ground-dwelling parrot dubbed the “thylacine of the air”.
Pullen Pullen Reserve was established as a sanctuary to protect what was, at the time, the only known population of endangered Night Parrots.
This nocturnal, ground-dwelling bird is famous for avoiding detection, and has been described by the Smithsonian Institution as ‘the planet’s most elusive bird’.
Prior to 2013 the last living specimen had been collected in Western Australia in 1912.
The Pullen Pullen Night Parrot population was discovered in 2013 by ornithologist John Young, who captured several photos and a few seconds of video footage of a live bird.
Global interest was so intense the exact location was kept a closely guarded secret to protect the endangered birds from disturbance.
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Pullen Pullen landscape. Photo Annette Ruzicka.
The Queensland Government’s approval to transfer a former pastoral lease to Bush Heritage recognised the significance of this land for securing survival of the Night Parrot.
We've been working closely with scientists to map the habitat, learn about Night Parrots, and put conservation planning in place to increase the bird’s chances of survival.
Dr Steve Murphy and his team captured more than 100,000 hours of sound data to better understand habitat use and aspects of breeding biology. This information is vital for to help us protect Night Parrots from feral animals, wildfire and grazing pressure from cattle and kangaroos.
– Rob Murphy, Executive Manager Conservation Operations“Pullen Pullen Reserve is critical for this special bird that still could be lost forever if we don’t work together for the long term to protect it.”
What Pullen Pullen protects
Pullen Pullen Reserve is located in a bioregion that’s under-represented in the National Reserve System. The region is home to other endangered and vulnerable birds such as the Plains-wanderer (critically endangered) and Grey Falcon.
The reserve’s landscape features sandstone, claystone and siltstone plateaus (or mesas), skirted by long unburnt spinifex that’s important roosting and breeding habitat for Night Parrots.
Away from the plateaus, extensive gibber plains support chenopod shrublands that are dissected by braided watercourses lined with gidgee and mulga.
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Plains Wanderer. Photo Andrea Tschirner.
What we’re doing
In 2020 we successfully installed important accommodation infrastructure that will give our land managers, ecologists, research partners and volunteers a sheltered base to work from.
In this remote landscape where temperatures readily reach mid-40s, a reprieve from the elements will give us a chance to stay longer on reserve with each trip and potentially to continue conservation work in the landscape all year round.
We’re confident this is a big step forward that will lead to more conservation gains, as well as help us realise opportunities to share knowledge and support connection to Country for Maiawali People, the Traditional Custodians of Pullen Pullen.
A Special Wildlife Reserve
Pullen Pullen had the honour of being declared Queensland’s first ever Special Wildlife Reserve.
This new class of protected area, legislated by the Queensland Government, provides National-Park-level protections to privately owned nature reserves.
Queensland is the only state to provide National-Park-level protection to private land, making the declaration of Pullen Pullen Special Wildlife Reserve an Australian first as well.
This status will ensure the land is permanently protected from activities such as mining, timber harvesting or grazing. It’s also great recognition of the tireless work done since the land’s purchase in 2016, such as feral predator control and fire management across the reserve.
Ecological Scorecard
See a full ecological scorecard for Bon Bon Station Reserve.
Learn more about how we measure our impact.
460 KB Studying the Night Parrot
Since purchasing the reserve, we’ve also worked closely with researchers and scientists to study the elusive Night Parrot and better understand its ecology and how best it can be protected.
Ecologist Nick Leseberg finalised his PhD on Night Parrot ecology before joining our staff. His research builds on three years of research at the reserve by Dr Steve Murphy.
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Nick Leseberg. Photo courtesy of Nick Leseberg.
Nick made some important discoveries, including recording fledglings and finding nests. Updates from Nick and more of our research partners are available in the related stories below.
Cultural values
Pullen Pullen is the Maiawali word for Night Parrot. The sanctuary is on traditional Maiawali country and includes culturally significant areas such as worked stone scatters.
Our work at Pullen Pullen to protect the Night Parrot is supported by the Queensland Government’s Nature Assist program.
