Bon Bon Reserve is a

private protected area A private protected area, also known as a private reserve, is not an official category within IUCN's Protected Area guidelines, but includes those protected areas that fall under geographical space that is privately owned, 'kept aside' for public be ...

located in the Australian

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, west of the town of

Roxby Downs Roxby Downs may refer to. * Roxby Downs, South Australia, a town and a locality * Roxby Council, formerly Municipal Council of Roxby Downs, a local government area See also *Roxby Downs Station Roxby Downs Station was a pastoral lease in centra ...

in the

Woomera Prohibited Area The RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately north-west of Adelaide. The WRC is operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a d ...

. It is owned and managed by

Bush Heritage Australia Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, that operates throughout Australia. It was previously known as the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, which is still its legal name. It's vision is: Heal ...

(BHA). It forms an important link of protected land between

Yellabinna Regional Reserve The Yellabinna Regional Reserve is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located about north of Ceduna. To the west it borders Nullarbor Regional Reserve, to the south Yumbarra Conservation Park and Pureba Conservati ...

and Wabma Kadarbu Mound Springs Conservation Park.

History

Bon Bon Reserve was a

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

for 150 years before being purchased by BHA in 2008 with assistance from the Australian and South Australian governments.Bon Bon Reserve
/ref> The station ran an average of approximately 15,000 head of sheep between 1970 and 1989 with flocks exceeding 23,000 at times prior to this. The owner of Bon Bon Station, Grazier Paul Blight, sold the property to Bush Heritage Australia in 2008 for 4 million with the state and federal governments sharing in the cost. Blight had kept stock numbers low to give the vegetation a chance to regenerate and wanted the property to continue to be managed in an environmentally sensitive manner. The land occupying the extent of the Bon Bon reserve was gazetted by the Government of South Australia as a locality in April 2013 under the name 'Bon Bon'.

Landscape and vegetation

Bon Bon Reserve is characterised by arid-zone

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, 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 sunlight and limited shade (se ...

s, mulga shrublands, bluebush plains and salt lakes. At the heart of the property is Lake Puckridge, a large (8 km by 4 km), ephemeral freshwater

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

that only fills, on average, every ten years, when it becomes an important site for many

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s and

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

s. The property also contains stands of

Sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...

Fauna

Threatened animal species either known or thought likely to be present on Bon Bon Reserve include plains-wanderer,

Major Mitchell's cockatoo Major Mitchell's cockatoo (''Lophochroa leadbeateri''), also known as Leadbeater's cockatoo or the pink cockatoo, is a medium-sized cockatoo that inhabits arid and semi-arid inland areas of Australia, though it is seen regularly in other climat ...

, chestnut-breasted whiteface,

thick-billed grasswren The thick-billed grasswren (''Amytornis modestus'') is a species of bird in the family Maluridae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitat is Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation. Taxonomy and systematics The thick-billed grasswren wa ...

and southern hairy-nosed wombat.

Protected area status

Bon Bon Reserve has protected area status within the Australian

National Reserve System Australia's National Reserve System (NRS) is a network of more than 10,000 Commonwealth plus state and territory protected areas which, in combination, on a national scale, protect more than , greater than 17% of the continent, of unique biodi ...

due to the property being subject to a conservation covenant where BHA has agreed to it being "reserved in perpetuity.’’ Bon Bon Reserve is classified as an IUCN Category II protected area.

References

External links

Bush Heritage AustraliaEntry for Bon Bon Reserve on Protected Planet
{{Stations of South Australia Bush Heritage Australia reserves Private protected areas of South Australia 2008 establishments in Australia Far North (South Australia) Gawler bioregion