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 Newhaven Station, five times larger than Gluepot Reserve, is 262,600ha (approximately 80 x 35 km) or 650,000 acres in size, and lies 363km or four and a half hours drive north-west of Alice Springs. Birds Australia purchased Newhaven in 2000 with assistance from the Commonwealth Governments National Reserve System grant scheme, with the intention of managing the property for biodiversity conservation. In 2006 the Australian Wildlife Conservancy became the leading partner in co-management of Newhaven with Birds Australia.
It has many of the characteristics of the remote Great Sandy Desert and yet it is very accessible. The area is extensive, complex and intact. It is home to at least 15 nationally threatened species of animals and plants. It boasts ten vegetation communities and a wide array of landforms, none of which are well represented in existing reserves.
Most intriguingly, however, Newhaven is also the site of one of the latest sightings of a pair of Night Parrots. Habitat suitable for the parrots remains intact and abundant because of the unusually conservative stocking rates and careful management in the past. It is essential that this habitat, which is also favoured by grazing stock, is protected for Australia's most enigmatic bird. If the property were sold elsewhere, we could not be certain of continued good management.
Newhaven Bird Survey May 2009
Newhaven Bird Survey August 2008
 Aboriginal connections
Newhaven adjoins Aboriginal Freehold land on all sides. It contains six recorded or registered sacred sites. The land to the north, south and west has never been stocked while the property to the east was, until recently, a cattle station.
Aboriginal people from the Warlpiri, Luritja and Anmatyerre language groups have a strong traditional association with the area. At this time of reconciliation, Newhaven provides Birds Australia and its members with an exciting opportunity to work closely with traditional Aboriginal custodians and to explore cultural links which may contribute to the financial future of some of these outback communities.
Land forms and vegetation
There is an outstanding diversity of environmental gradients on Newhaven Station and, with careful management, the property is large enough to be ecologically self-sustaining. It has a wide range of land forms ranging from parallel dunes in the south to salt lakes, clay pans, plains country and rocky ranges. The calcareous grasslands, open woodland and open shrublands associated with these land forms provide the diversity which supports a wide variety of birds, mammals and reptiles. This variability arises from Newhaven's location at the junction of three bioregions: the Great Sandy Desert, MacDonnell Ranges and Burt Plain.
Ten major vegetation communities have been identified on Newhaven. Most are either not present or only poorly represented in reserves in the Northern Territory.
 To date, 107 species of plants have been recorded on the property. Further surveys are expected to reveal many more. Eighteen of these species are not represented in any NT reserve and seven are of special conservation significance. These are the Mallee Copper Burr or Small-flower Saltbush Sclerolaena parviflora, Desert Broom-bush Daviesia eremaea, Goodenia refracta, Abutilon lepidum, Spartothamnella puberula, Amaranthus pallidiflorus and Eucalyptus aff. intertexa.
The calcrete benches which occur on Newhaven are particularly important drought refuges for small mammals. In the past Burrowing Bettongs would have occupied these sites. Where calcrete areas and sandplain grasslands meet, ideal habitat is created for many small and medium mammals. There are also numerous dingoes on the station.
Newhaven's Pastoral history
Newhaven has been a cattle station for only 40 years, with the Perpetual Pastoral Lease taken up in 1958. The land has been sensitively managed by the Coppock family ever since.
 Newhaven has never been mined and has been subject to low stocking rates. About 25 per cent of the property has never been grazed, and the other 75 per cent has only been lightly stocked. Few properties in the southern Northern Territory have been as conservatively managed, and as a result much of the habitat is intact.
There are 12 active bores, two of which have a year-round supply of water suitable for human consumption. The air strip needs some work to bring it up to a current air safety rating. The property has several relics of the pastoral era.
Threatened Species at Newhaven
Despite being in a region of naturally low bird diversity, 138 species of bird have been recorded so far at Newhaven. All of the major bird groups are well represented. There are five species which are nationally threatened (see below), and 19 species which are threatened in one or more mainland States. Regionally threatened birds include species such as the Major Mitchell Cockatoo, Black-breasted Buzzard, Australian Bustard, Bush Stone-curlew, and Grey-crowned Babbler. Occasionally Newhaven's huge salt lakes and smaller fresh water clay pans are filled with water and may then be used by large numbers of northern hemisphere waders. Many of these have not been identified to date and are not yet on the species list. The nationally threatened mammals recorded on Newhaven by the Parks & Wildlife Service of the Northern Territory (PWSNT) are described below. No detailed surveys have been undertaken, and experienced PWSNT staff believe this list is certain to increase.
 Night Parrot
Now considered nationally threatened, the Night Parrot Pezoporus occidentalis was thought extinct until a road-killed specimen was found in Queensland in 1990. Its preferred habitat is probably chenopod shrublands and seeding spinifex communities. In 1996 a pair of Night Parrots landed 3 metres from trained observers at Newhaven. This record has been kept secret since. The main threats to the species are suspected to be predation by feral cats and foxes, altered fire regimes and grazing by stock and rabbits.
Princess Parrot
This nationally threatened parrot, Polytelis alexandrae, is perhaps one of Australia's most beautiful birds. It has probably always been rare, with a former range through the remote semi-arid zone of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia. In the wild it is rarely seen and there are probably more birds in captivity. Likely threats include altered fire regimes and grazing by introduced herbivores.
 Grey Falcon
The nationally threatened Grey Falcon Falco hypoleucos is sparsely distributed over a wide area of semi-arid Australia. The breeding distribution has contracted over past decades as a result of overgrazing, clearance and degradation of its open woodland habitat. These changes may have affected the availability of prey or nest sites, particularly in sparsely treed parts of the inland where regeneration of trees has been prevented by grazing. Egg collecting is still a potential threat.
 Striated Grasswren
The sandplain subspecies of the Striated Grasswren Amytornis striatus is also found at the Birds Australia Gluepot Reserve in the South Australian mallee. It lives in the hummock grasslands of semi-arid Australia, where its range has contracted markedly over the last few decades. It is now considered nationally threatened. The clearance of vegetation on marginal land was a major cause of the population decline, but now altered fire regimes, grazing and introduced predators are the main threats.
 Grey Honeyeater
This species, Conopophila whitei, has just been reclassified as nationally threatened. An inhabitant of Acacia woodlands in central Western Australia and central Australia, it is a mobile and unobtrusive bird. Little is known of its habits or the threatening processes affecting it, but it has been seen regularly at small water sources at Newhaven.
 Mulgara
The Mulgara Dasycercus cristicauda is a small native carnivore that inhabits the arid sandy regions of Australia. It is nationally vulnerable. It is usually found in long-unburnt spinifex communities, principally of Triodia basedowii which is widespread at Newhaven. Fire regimes which simplify the structure of the spinifex communities are likely to have adversely affected this species. The stronghold of the population appears to be the Northern Territory.
 Black-footed Rock-wallaby
The Black-footed Rock-wallaby Petrogale lateralis has a number of subspecies, all of which have declined in distribution and abundance. The MacDonnell Ranges form, which is present at Newhaven, declined greatly in numbers between 1930 and 1960. Fox predation is the likely cause. It is still locally common in some places.
 Marsupial Mole
The Marsupial Mole Notocytes typhlops is widely distributed through the deserts of central and north-west Australia. It occurs mostly in sandy soils and dunes, usually at depths of 40-100 cm. It spends most of its life underground and is blind, but does come to the surface. Changes to the vegetation, whether through fire, grazing or trampling by stock, will affect the survival of this species. Predation by introduced animals is a significant problem. In one study, 10 per cent of fox, 3 per cent of cat and 2 per cent of dog scats contained Marsupial Moles. Its conservation status is not well understood because it is so rarely seen.
Significance for the future
The quality, diversity and abundance of habitats and species on Newhaven play an important role in protecting Australia's arid-zone biodiversity. Acacia woodland, spinifex grassland, chenopod (saltbush) communities and bare salt pan are poorly represented in reserves in the Northern Territory. The establishment of Newhaven has increased their level of protection from 3 per cent to 23 per cent.
 Newhaven is the first nature reserve in Australia where Night Parrots are believed to occur. This enigmatic and elusive species is so poorly known that protecting the habitats where it has been recorded is vitally important.
The arid-zone covers more that 70 per cent of the Australian continent and is little studied. It is likely that Newhaven will develop into a centre for arid-zone research, just as Gluepot Reserve has become for mallee ecology in South Australia. Agencies such as CSIRO, the PWSNT in Alice Springs and universities can work with Birds Australia in undertaking the research so essential for the effective management of Newhaven.
The PWSNT consider the property an ideal release site for regionally extinct Mala and other threatened mammals.
The wilderness qualities and vastness of the region and its varied wildlife provide significant tourism opportunities. It is an ideal area for volunteers and the more committed ecotourist to get involved in arid-zone research and management, and to learn of the area's significance to its traditional Aboriginal custodians.
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