Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, once a

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...

known as Newhaven Station, is an Australian

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

. It lies around north-west of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

of Australia. It is jointly operated by Birds Australia and the

Australian Wildlife Conservancy The Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) is an independent Australian nonprofit organisation, working to conserve threatened wildlife and ecosystems in Australia. AWC is the largest private owner and manager of land for conservation in Austral ...

History

Newhaven is surrounded by Aboriginal lands: Warlpiri,

Luritja The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-Luritja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Their traditional lands are immediately west of the Derwent River, that forms a frontier with the Arrernte p ...

, and

Anmatyerre The Anmatyerr (also spelt Anmatyerre, Anmatjera, Anmatjirra, Amatjere and other variations) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory, who speak one of the Upper Arrernte languages. Language Anmatyerr is divided into Eas ...

people have a traditional association with the area.

Aboriginal sacred site An Australian Aboriginal sacred site is a place deemed significant and meaningful by Aboriginal Australians based on their beliefs. It may include any feature in the landscape, and in coastal areas, these may lie underwater. The site's status i ...

s have been identified on the property, including Yunkanjini (Lake Bennett). Newhaven Station was established as a

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to Pastoral farming, graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Austral ...

and

in the

Tanami Desert The Tanami Desert () is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a rocky terrain and small hills. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored by Austral ...

, Northern Territory. Alex Coppock took over the lease in 1959, with his wife naming it Newhaven. The Coppocks maintained only a subsistence stock of cattle on the property, which ensured the survival of various rare species of

flora and fauna An organism is any living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have been pro ...

. After bringing

Waler The Waler is an Australian breed of horse that was developed from horses that were brought to the Australian colonies in the 19th century. The name comes from their breeding origins in New South Wales; they were originally known as "New South ...

horses from his father's property ''Gibeanie'' on the

Stuart Highway Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, in the Northern Territory, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta in South Australia; it has a distance of . Its northern and souther ...

, they increased the stock, which retained genetic isolation from others in the country. Water supplied for the horses attracted other wildlife to the station. Newhaven Station was purchased by Birds Australia for (which included funding of from the federal government via its

National Reserve System Australia's National Reserve System (NRS) is a network of more than 10,000 Commonwealth of Australia, Commonwealth plus States and territories of Australia, state and territory protected areas which, in combination, on a national scale, protect ...

) in December 2000 from Coppock. The horses were mostly rehomed elsewhere, although the original plan had been to deprive them of water and let them die. In 2006, the

(AWC) became a partner with Birds Australia in co-managing the sanctuary. In 2010,

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty to that land by another colonising state. The requirements of proof for the recognition of ab ...

was granted to the Ngalia-Warlpiri and Luritja peoples. The construction of the world's longest cat-proof fence was completed at Newhaven in April 2018, enclosing a predator-free area.

Location and description

Newhaven is located around north-west of

, and from the Aboriginal community of

Yuendumu Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia, northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Road, within the Central Desert Region local government area. It ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia, and has a ...

. It lies in the

bioregion A bioregion is a geographical area, on land or at sea, defined not by administrative boundaries, but by distinct characteristics such as plant and animal species, ecological systems, soils and landforms, Human settlement, human settlements, and ...

of the

Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,IBRA Version 6.1
data

. With an area of , Newhaven is five times the size of Birds Australia's other reserve, Gluepot, in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. Newhaven's

landforms A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement i ...

include parallel

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

salt lakes A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per liter). I ...

claypan Claypan is a dense, compact, slowly permeable layer in the subsoil. It has a much higher clay content than the overlying material, from which it is separated by a sharply defined boundary. The dense structure restricts root growth and water infiltra ...

s, plains and rocky

hills A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as mountains. Hills fall und ...

. Vegetation includes

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

s and

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

s, which can be subdivided into ten distinct vegetation communities, with over 600 species of plants recorded. Several

threatened species A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

of birds and other animals have been recorded on Newhaven. These include the

night parrot The night parrot (''Pezoporus occidentalis'') is a small parrot endemic to the continent of Australia. It has also been known as porcupine parrot, nocturnal ground parakeet, midnight cockatoo, solitaire, spinifex parrot and night parakeet. It i ...

grey falcon The grey falcon (''Falco hypoleucos'') is a medium-sized falcon native to Australia, possibly the rarest. It is uncommon throughout its range and is currently classified as Vulnerable. Taxonomy The description of the species was published by ...

princess parrot The colourful princess parrot (''Polytelis alexandrae'') is an Australian bird of the parrot family. Its name was given in honour of Princess Alexandra of Denmark, who in 1863 married the Prince of Wales Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Edward V ...

striated grasswren The striated grasswren (''Amytornis striatus'') is a small, cryptically coloured ground-dwelling species of wren-like bird in the family Maluridae, Endemism, endemic to Australia. It occupies a large discontinuous range across arid and semi-arid ...

grey honeyeater The grey honeyeater (''Conopophila whitei'') is a species of bird in the honeyeater family. It is an uncommon and little-known bird, an often overlooked Endemism, endemic of remote areas in central Australia. Taxonomy Currently placed as a speci ...

brush-tailed mulgara The brush-tailed mulgara (''Dasycercus blythi''), previously the mulgara ''Dasycercus cristicauda'', is a medium sized carnivorous Australian marsupial species weighing approximately . The brush-tailed mulgara is sexually dimorphic with males bei ...

black-flanked rock-wallaby The black-flanked rock-wallaby (''Petrogale lateralis''), also known as the black-footed rock-wallaby or warru, is a species of wallaby, one of several rock-wallabies in the genus '' Petrogale''. A shy, nocturnal herbivore, its two main subspe ...

, greater bilby,

marsupial mole Marsupial moles, the Notoryctidae family, are two species of highly specialized marsupial mammals that are found in the Australian interior. They are small burrowing marsupials that anatomically converge on fossorial placental mammals, such as ...

, and great desert skink.

Governance

In December 2005 Birds Australia signed an agreement with AWC that saw AWC assume ownership and day-to-day financial responsibility for Newhaven, while allowing for Birds Australia to have long-term involvement in the management of the reserve, Birds Australia members to have access, and ensuring the conservation of the

. From 2006, the two organisations became partners in managing the reserve. For many years, the original station owner, Alex Coppock, continued to act as guide and mentor to scientists working on the property. Since 2007, it has been included in the

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

Lake Mackay Lake Mackay, known as Wilkinkarra to the Indigenous Pintupi people, is the largest of hundreds of ephemeral salt lakes scattered throughout the Pilbara and northern parts of the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia and the Northe ...

Species conservation

In August 2023, a joint team comprising AWC staff and

Indigenous ranger Indigenous ranger programs enable First Nations people across Australia to protect and manage their land, sea and culture through a combination of traditional knowledge with Western science and conservation practices. Introduced by the Australia ...

women translocated 40

golden bandicoot The golden bandicoot (''Isoodon auratus''; Yolngu: ''Wan'kurra'') is a short-nosed bandicoot found in northern Australia. It is the smallest of its genus, and is distinguished from the brown bandicoots by its golden colouring and much smaller ...

s from the Charnley River-Artesian Range Wildlife Sanctuary in northern WA to Newhaven, after previously carrying out a survey of the animals. These were joined by a further 60 of the

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

from

Barrow Island Barrow Island or may Barrow Island''s'' refer to: * Barrow Island, an island located in Western Australia * N. and S. Barrow Islands, a pair of islands located in Queensland, Australia * Barrow Island, a former island in Barrow-in-Furness, Englan ...

the following week. In August 2024, 40

brushtail possum The brushtail possums are the members of the genus ''Trichosurus'' in the Phalangeridae, a family of marsupials. They are native to Australia (including Tasmania) and some small nearby islands. Unique among marsupials, they have shifted the hyp ...

s, believed to be

locally extinct Local extinction, also extirpation, is the termination of a species (or other taxon) in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions. Local extinctions mark a chan ...

in the

Red Centre Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

, were translocated from

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island (, ) is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Poi ...

(where they are abundant) to Newhaven. The possums were welcomed by the Anmatyerr people in Laramba with a "Possum Dreaming" ceremony.

References

*''Birds Australia Annual Report 2005''. Birds Australia: Melbourne.

External links

*
Birds Australia: NewhavenNewhaven
on

Protected Planet The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the largest assembly of data on the world's terrestrial and marine protected areas, containing more than 260,000 protected areas as of August 2020, with records covering 245 countries and territori ...

{{AWC Reserves Nature reserves in the Northern Territory Australian Wildlife Conservancy reserves 2000 establishments in Australia Stations in the Northern Territory 1959 establishments in Australia

History

Location and description

Governance

Species conservation

See also

References

Further reading

External links