The reserve is made up of two separate pastoral properties, Pungalina and Seven Emu. Pungalina is a former cattle station while Seven Emu is owned by a Garawa man, Frank Shadforth, who has subleased of the property to AWC for wildlife conservation since 2009. Seven Emu has of coastline and links Pungalina to the coast. The arrangement is a historic partnership between a non-profit, private conservation organisation and an Indigenous landholder. Seven Emu is named after Seven Emu Creek, which runs through the property. It was explorer Ludwig Leichhardt who named the creek, after shooting a mob of emus nearby when on his way to Port Essington in 1844–5.
"...gently undulating coastal plains along the southern Gulf of Carpentaria from near the Roper River to near the Queensland border, with scattered rugged areas of Proterozoic sandstones. Soils are predominantly sandy red earths and shallow gravelly sands. The climate is tropical with annual rainfall between 800 and 1200 mm, falling mostly between December and March; cyclones are a frequent phenomenon. The bioregion encompasses the lower reaches of many major rivers. Eucalyptuswoodland with tussock or hummock grass understorey dominates the bioregion, with significant areas of tidal flats, mangroves and littoralgrassland."
The reserve contains a variety of habitat types including, from south to north, eucalypt woodlands on sandstone plateaus with pockets of dry rainforestin deep gorges, floodplain woodlands and freshwater wetlands, coastal monsoon rainforest, littoral saline grasslands, mangroves, and intertidal mudflats. There is an abrupt transition, marked by an escarpment, between the plateau and the floodplain. The Calvert River drains the dissected plateau country through a network of steep-sided gorges and flows north-eastwards through the lowlands of the reserve before emptying into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Seven Emu Station is a working cattle station, which has been in the Shadforth family since Garawa man Willie Shadforth bought it outright for cash in 1953. The Shadforths were one of the early settler families in the region, and many of the Shadforth men partnered with local Garawa and Yanyuwa women. Willie was an expert cattle drover and horse trader, who moved cattle and horses between Queensland, the NT, Western Australia and South Australia. He bought the pastoral lease for £10,000 from his friend George Butcher after first winning money on a horse in the Caulfield Cup, and then putting all of his winnings on 14-to-1 outsider in the Melbourne Cup, winning there again. He was the first Indigenous Australian to purchase such a property. Willie passed on the property to his son Frank, who now looks after guests, while Frank's son Clarry and his children manage the cattle station. Tourists who visit the property are given guided tours which pass on some of the Garawa traditions and culture as well as native fauna and stories of European exploration of the area. Willie had maintained his traditional culture, such as in ceremonies and law, and passed his knowledge down to Frank. Frank also runs a self-funded program to help give Aboriginal boys and girls who have been in trouble a second chance in life, teaching them skills such as catching bulls, building fences and mustering.
