Kalamurina Sanctuary

Kalamurina Sanctuary

class=notpageimage|

Location in South Australia

Kalamurina Sanctuary is a nature reserve in arid north-eastern South Australia.

The 6,700 square kilometres (2,587 sq mi) pastoral lease operated as a cattle station for many decades in the 20th century. It was acquired in December 2007 by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy to become a nature reserve for biodiversity conservation and wildlife management. A high priority management need is a feral animal control program.

Although bordered by Cowarie Station to the east, the reserve is also between the Simpson Desert Regional Reserve to the north, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park to the south, the establishment of Kalamurina as a nature reserve creates a continuous protected area in central Australia larger than the State of Tasmania.

Landscape

Kalamurina borders on the north coast of Lake Eyre North and contains a large proportion of the Lake Eyre catchment. Its habitats include dunefields, gibber plains, desert woodlands, freshwater and saline lakes, and riparian habitats along the three important desert waterways that converge on the property the Warburton and Macumba Rivers and Kallakoopah Creek.

Wildlife

Threatened wildlife species on Kalamurina include the crest-tailed mulgara, kultarr, Lake Eyre dragon and Eyrean grasswren.

Station

The pastoral lease for Kalamurina had been established prior to 1884, at this time the property was stocked with merino sheep for the purpose of producing wool. Owned in 1888 A. Mercer by the station had also introduced camels for the transportation of supplies. By 1889 a herd of cattle was being run at the property which was now owned by Cave and Robertson. The station had been acquired by William Robertson in about 1895. A poor season was reported in 1897 with others following resulting in Kalamurina being abandoned in 1899 as a result of drought conditions with all the waterholes having dried up completely by 1902. Robertson was declared insolvent in late 1902, and the property was valued shortly afterward at £12,675. Drought hit the area again in 1908 resulting in virtually no feed left on many properties in the area including Kalamurina which had an area of 3,000 square miles (7,770 km²) and was stocked with about 6,000 head of cattle.

In 1994 much of the area was again in the grip of a severe drought when the station was acquired by Tony Boyd who advised by climatologists that rains would arrive in the next season. Rains arrived and the 6,500 square kilometres (2,510 sq mi) property had two good seasons back to back with 3,500 cattle being reared on the property. Boyd was still running Kalamurina in 1999.

External links

• Australian Wildlife Conservancy