Bon Bon Reserve was a sheep station for 150 years before being purchased by BHA in 2008 with assistance from the Australian and South Australian governments.[3] The station ran an average of approximately 15,000 head of sheep between 1970 and 1989 with flocks exceeding 23,000 at times prior to this.[4] The owner of Bon Bon Station, Grazier Paul Blight, sold the property to Bush Heritage Australia in 2008 for A$4 million with the state and federal governments sharing in the cost. Blight had kept stock numbers low to give the vegetation a chance to regenerate and wanted the property to continue to be managed in an environmentally sensitive manner.[5]
The land occupying the extent of the Bon Bon reserve was gazetted by the Government of South Australia as a locality in April 2013 under the name 'Bon Bon'.[6]
Landscape and vegetation
Bon Bon Reserve is characterised by arid-zonewoodlands, mulgashrublands, bluebush plains and salt lakes. At the heart of the property is Lake Puckridge, a large (8 km by 4 km), ephemeral freshwater wetland that only fills, on average, every ten years, when it becomes an important site for many waders and waterbirds. The property also contains stands of Sandalwood.[3]
^"Bon Bon Reserve". World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), a joint project of IUCN and UNEP. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.