Pungalina is a former cattle station while Seven Emu is currently owned by a Garawa man, Frank Shadforth, who has subleased 110,000 hectares (270,000 acres) of the property to AWC for wildlife conservation since 2009.

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.

Animals listed as threatened include the masked owl, red goshawk, Gouldian finch, Carpentarian false antechinus, freshwater sawfish, Mertens' water monitor and Gulf snapping turtle.

[2] Other birds and mammals recorded include the purple-crowned fairy-wren, Australian bustard, short-eared rock-wallaby, spectacled hare-wallaby and northern brown bandicoot.

[10][11] The coastal and subcoastal habitats of the southern Gulf region are not as well known ornithologically as the Top End to the west and the Cape York Peninsula to the east, with several birds having gaps in their recorded ranges between the two areas.

[6] Frank started running a self-funded program in the 2010s 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.

Dale Wakefield, the NT Minister for Territory Families, said that the camps "not only focus on personal responsibility and consequences, but they will also give young people a way out of crime by connecting them with practical learning, vocational education training and work programs".