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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.
 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 vegetationThere 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 historyNewhaven 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.
Download
 Newhaven Bird Survey August 2008 (235kb)
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