Cattle station remote Australia destocks to help conserve native wildlife
Bullo River cattle station is famous for the larger-than-life characters who've lived there. Located on the West Australian and Northern Territory border, its new owners are determined to prove cattlemen and women can work alongside conservation scientists.
Transcript
00:00 The Kimberley is known for its heart stirring landscapes, the dust haze, earthy waters,
00:10 the beauty of the boa trees combining in a magical call of the country.
00:19 Booloo River Station boasts it all, along with the legendary stories of the dreamers
00:25 and larger than life characters who've called this place home.
00:30 For Charles English Henderson III, this is his last stand.
00:38 He's a man who's lost and made more fortunes than most since his days as a wartime flying
00:43 ace with the American Navy.
00:45 But in Henderson's eyes, Booloo River has always been more than just a cattle station.
00:53 The 400,000 acre property will be familiar to those inspired by his widow, Sarah Henderson's
01:00 starkly candid account of raising three girls on Booloo alone.
01:04 I've been told so many times if I stay here five years I'll never leave.
01:12 I doubt if I'd last five years.
01:16 While the Hendersons might have put the far flung station on the map, the new tenants
01:21 could make an even more lasting impact.
01:28 Alexandra and Julian Burt bought Booloo River Station in 2017.
01:34 Both have prominent pastoral ancestry and wanted to own a piece of northern land.
01:38 But their joint vision extends well beyond just running cattle.
01:42 And that's where Booloo River Station has been the perfect stomping ground.
01:51 I think I woke up one morning and thought it would be nice to own a bit of land in northern
01:55 Australia because I thought well there's an opportunity to restore something, to fix something.
02:04 The Australian Wildlife Conservancy has been engaged under a 10 year agreement to demonstrate
02:09 how conservation and pastoral activities can co-exist.
02:12 For some, it's a controversial notion, but it's something the Burts want to prove.
02:29 The whole idea with Booloo is to consider both and not to degrade the country, to look
02:34 after it, to make it better than it was, to have more biodiversity than when you found
02:39 it, to leave no animal behind.
02:47 They've reduced cattle numbers to three and a half thousand to assist with the rehabilitation
02:51 of land.
02:55 Some grazing areas have been returned to native bush to increase wildlife and the wetlands
03:00 are being restored.
03:05 It's one of the few partnerships of its kind and the ambition is to create a model for
03:11 other pastoral operations to apply.
03:13 At the end of the day, pastoral can't be run just with grass.
03:19 You've got to be able to manage your country, manage your grasses, manage your soils, manage
03:23 your waterways.
03:24 Otherwise, it's more like planning for the future because you see so much devastation
03:32 throughout, whether it is in a conservation area or pastoral area, wherever it is, we
03:38 all need to work together to make it happen.
03:40 If we can't work together, it's going to be a very long road.
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