What we’re doing
With our supporters' help, we're tackling the three ‘Fs’ – fire, ferals and fences – as the major management priorities.
Cattle and feral camels have taken a heavy toll here. Camels foul important watering holes and destabilise dune crests, while past cattle grazing caused severe damage to native habitats.
The cattle are now gone, and we're aiming to eradicate feral camels. The sensitive artesian springs are fenced off to keep camels out.
Wildfire is a threat to the reserve, but we manage the risk using fire breaks and controlled burns. This work is paying off, with areas of samphire and saltbush shrublands showing signs of recovery, and we’re finding more small mammals in the absence of cattle.
It never rains, but it pours
Every few decades a miracle takes place at Ethabuka Reserve.
The heavens open up across northern Queensland and turn the usually dry, parched landscape into a watery world teeming with life.
The Mulligan River, a dry creek bed 99% of the time, rushes through the reserve, filling waterholes, rejuvenating wetlands and turning the landscape green with new growth.
If the flood waters are high enough, as they were in 2010, the Mulligan joins forces with the Georgina River catchment further south, causing an explosion in migrating fish.
More on floods in the desert
Ethabuka Reserve is part of Wangkamadla country. The Wangkamadla have a long-standing connection to this land, with rock paintings and significant ceremonial sites scattered across the reserve.
The reserve once lay on a trade route linking Queensland's Gulf of Carpentaria all the way to South Australia. The local narcotic plant pituri was traded in return for stone knives, seashells and even dugong-tusk daggers.