Koonamore Vegetation Reserve

Each year students, volunteers and researchers from Adelaide Uni come to Koonamore for the annual work camp. They stay in the on site 'Bindy-I' Cottage. The reserve is used for scientific research and is not open to the general public. Please see our website for more information: http://biological.adelaide.edu.au/about/fieldwork/koonamore/

History:
In the mid 1920’s Professor TGB Osborn and his colleagues extended their interests in ecology and field physiology of vegetation to the arid zone of South Australia. The resulting long-term vegetation monitoring project at Koonamore is now over 80 years old, making it one of the longest-running monitoring series of its type in the world.

The aims were stated by Osborn as:
1. To study the regeneration of natural vegetation, particularly of saltbush and trees in an overgrazed area, when all grazing influences, including those of rabbits, are removed.
2. To study the effect of grazing of known intensity on the process of regeneration.
3. To study the ecology of the area and particularly the autecology of the species that are most valuable economically.

The Reserve records now contain a history of the vegetation over 50 years without sheep grazing followed by more than 30 years without significant grazing by either sheep or rabbits. Kangaroos and emus have never been excluded from the Reserve, as they can jump the fence, and their numbers vary with the seasons.