Qualla: Bowra Sanctuary

Bowra Sanctuary: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda, CC BY-SA 3.0. At first light on the Warrego plains, the air at Bowra is loud. Parrots break from the river gums in screeching flocks, babblers chatter through the mulga, and somewhere overhead a falcon rides the early thermals. For birdwatchers, this 140-square-kilometre patch of southwest Queensland is something close to hallowed ground: more than 200 species have been recorded here - over a quarter of all the bird species regularly seen in the whole of Australia, gathered within a single former cattle run about sixteen kilometres northwest of Cunnamulla. Bowra is not a manicured reserve or a zoo. It is working outback country that one family, and then a conservation charity, decided was worth keeping wild.

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Image: derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bowra Sanctuary: Five Generations, One Decision

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Graham Winterflood from Cairns, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0. For five generations the McLaren family ran Bowra as a pastoral property, grazing stock on the Warrego River flats while - whether by design or good fortune - keeping its birdlife and other wildlife largely intact. When the time came to sell, they did something unusual: rather th...

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Image: Graham Winterflood from Cairns, Australia | CC BY-SA 2.0

Bowra Sanctuary: A Quarter of a Continent's Birds

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda, CC BY-SA 3.0. The numbers at Bowra are genuinely remarkable. The reserve hosts 14 species of parrot, all of which breed on the property, including the soft-voiced, nocturnal Bourke's parrot and the spectacular pink-and-grey Major Mitchell's cockatoo. It shelters 18 of Australia's diurnal birds...

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Image: derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bowra Sanctuary: More Than Birds

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bowra's reputation rests on its birds, but the reserve protects far more. A wide range of mammals, reptiles and frogs share the mulga and the river country. Tiny carnivorous marsupials hunt through the leaf litter - the fat-tailed and stripe-faced dunnarts, and the rare, long-leg...

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Image: derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bowra Sanctuary: A Mecca for Birders

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda, CC BY-SA 3.0. Among Australian birdwatchers, Bowra has acquired near-legendary status - a place spoken of the way anglers speak of a famous river. People drive enormous distances to camp here, rising before dawn to work the waterholes and the mulga in the cool of early morning, hoping to add H...

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Image: derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bowra Sanctuary: Where Two Rivers Reach

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bowra lies in the Mulga Lands bioregion, on the broad plains where the Warrego and Paroo river catchments meet - a setting that explains its abundance. This is dry country, but it is dry country laced with watercourses and waterholes, and in the outback water is everything. When ...

Read more: Bowra Sanctuary on Qualla

Image: derivative work: Snowmanradio (talk) Pink_Cockatoo_Bowra_Mar08.jpg: Aviceda | CC BY-SA 3.0