Hi Laurie,
Since you mention the AWC, I may as well throw in my recent experience with
them.
In the Kimberly we booked in for 3 nights at Mornington (my birding birthday
present) with an expectation of indulging myself in guided birding tours,
slide show presentations and dining out in the highly-reputed restaurant,
after 10 days of tinned food out of the boot of the car.
The reality was a bit different. On arrival we were greeted by rude and
grumpy staff (one overhead complaining to another that she had 6 weeks to
go, and couldn't wait to leave).
The restaurant (which you can't book in advance of your arrival) was fully
booked out for the next 8 days. I don't understand how that works. No one
we met there was staying for that long, so if everyone only stays on average
2or 3 nights, and you can't book prior to arrival, how can it be booked out
for over a week? Not just implausible, it actually defies the laws of
mathematics!
The guided tours were also fully booked out: I could not get onto a single
one of any description, despite there being numerous guided tours (some
birding, some not) allegedly available. Once again, everything was booked
out for a week.
So, decided to indulge in some of the slide shows, beautifully set out
(seating and all) with an outdoor screen in a lovely grassed area beside the
restaurant. No luck there either: the next slide show was 10 days away!
The staff were for the most part unsympathetic and could not have cared less
that none of the things that they advertise as being available actually are
available for visitors. we were lucky to have enough food with us for the
family during our stay: others had turned up with little food expecting to
be able to eat in the restaurant. The nearest shop is about 150km away!
The place is fantastic, but from a business perspective, whoever is running
that pace has got no idea how to do it. Most of the people we met were
similarly underwhelmed.
I hope other AWC sites are not so poorly managed.
Paul.
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Laurie Knight
Sent: Monday, 18 July 2016 5:59 PM
To: Birding Aus <>
Subject: Newhaven is very green at the moment
G'day
My friend Lionel is walking the Larapinta Trail at the moment and needed
some help setting up his food drops (and leaving his car in Alice Springs
for him to collect at the end of the walk). I had a week of leave up my
sleeve, so the Friday before last we left Brisbane after an early breakfast
and arrived at Newhaven on the afternoon of the fourth day.
Newhaven is managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy -
http://www.australianwildlife.org/sanctuaries/newhaven-sanctuary.aspx .
Most people would access it via the Tanami Rd from Alice Springs (now sealed
all the way to the turnoff - 20 km past the Tilmouth Roadhouse. Newhaven
has a well maintained ~130 km access road.
Newhaven has a large amount of topographical and ecological variation, and
is a very interesting place to visit, particularly after good rain. With ~
200 mm of rain in June, Newhaven was a mass of green, with plenty of water
in the lakes and lots of plants in flower. Newhaven has a good internal
road network with good signposting. It has an excellent campground with hot
showers. It costs $10 per person per night to camp there.
The AWC has written up 6 "tours" which take you through the property and
cover many ecosystem types. We did 5 of the circuits in the 3 full days we
had there (it is easy to combine the dune & lakes circuits, and the gorge &
home range circuits). Mt Gurner is a bit more of bushwalk for off track
walkers.
On the birding front, there were heaps of Bustards, Brown Falcons, Budgies,
Zebra Finches, Pink-eared Ducks, Aus Teal, Grey and Hoary-headed Grebes,
Black-fronted Dotterels, Fairy Martins, Pallid Cuckoos, Rufous Songlarks,
Hooded Robins, Masked Woodswallows, Black, Pied and Grey-headed and Singing
Honeyeaters. There were also Black-breasted Buzzards, Little Eagles,
Stubble Quail, Little Button-quail, Spinifex Pigeons, Orange and Crimson
Chats, White-browed Babblers, White-fronted Honeyeaters, Inland Thornbills,
Red-capped Robins, Crested Bellbirds, Painted Finch and Mistletoebirds etc.
Sadly there were no Princess Parrots at the time.
The songlarks, woodswallows and honeyeaters were very vocal. Many times I
heard the sparrow-like call of the woodswallows while photographing flowers
on the dunes (at one stage there were over 50 circling overhead).
Photographic highlights included a trio of partly fledged songlarks on the
ground and a Little Button-quail walking through a field of Mulla Mullas.
Actually, I was wandering through a hectare of Mulla Mullas (as you do) with
the landscape camera. I noticed that some lazy sod had driven a vehicle
through the flowers and was muttering words to that effect when I flushed a
Button-quail (it had a two syllable call) and noticed another one of the
ground in open ankle-high grass nearby. It was very frustrating being on
top of a BQ with a camera that was useless for photographing birds. I
remember that it did a funny sort of nervous walk at one stage. After I
lost sight of it, I went back to the car, retrieved the bird camera, made my
way back to the tyre marks, and would you believe it, refound the Little BQ
and got a respectable photo.
Overall I had a great time and found the AWC staff and volunteers very
friendly and helpful. Right now is a great time to be in Central Australia
.
Regards, Laurie.
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