A vast Northern Territory conservation property protecting Daly River floodplain, savannah woodland, and rugged ranges south of Darwin.
Fish River Station
Fish River Station is a large protected conservation property in the Northern Territory of Australia, located south of Daly River and roughly 150 kilometres south of Darwin. The property covers an area of about 1,781 square kilometres and is bounded by the Daly River, the Wingate Mountains, and neighboring pastoral stations. Its mix of floodplain, billabongs, rainforest pockets, rugged ranges, and savannah woodland gives it a varied landscape rarely combined in a single protected area in this part of Australia.
The property was acquired in 2011 as a partnership between the Indigenous Land Corporation, the Nature Conservancy, Pew Environmental Group, and the Australian Government's National Reserve System. The purchase marked a significant step in returning land management to the traditional owners, the Wagiman, Labarganyan, Malak Malak, and Kamu peoples. It stands as an example of how conservation, Indigenous land rights, and landscape protection can overlap in the tropical north of Australia.
The station's ecological importance lies in its long stretches of Daly River floodplain, the seasonal billabongs that punctuate the lowlands, the rainforest refuges nestled along watercourses, and the drier savannah woodland that surrounds them. Together these environments support a rich combination of northern Australian wildlife and provide a connected habitat block that has been shielded from the fragmentation affecting much of the surrounding region.
