Amendments to the list of threatened ecological communities under section 181 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EC128) (26/11/2015) (Cth)

Commonwealth of Australia

Amendments to the list of threatened ecological communities under section 181 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EC128)

I, GREG HUNT, Minister for the Environment, pursuant to paragraph 184(1)(a) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, hereby amend the list referred to in section 181 of that Act by:

including in the list in the critically endangered category

Eucalypt Woodlands of the Western Australian Wheatbelt

as described in the Schedule to this instrument.

Dated this…............26^th day of ….November ..2015

Greg Hunt

GREG HUNT

Minister for the Environment

SCHEDULE

Eucalypt Woodlands of the Western Australian Wheatbelt

The Eucalypt Woodlands of the Western Australian Wheatbelt ecological community is endemic to the wheatbelt region of southwestern Western Australia, located inland between the Darling Range and the Goldfields region. It occurs within the IBRA[1] subregions of Merredin (Avon Wheatbelt 01), Katanning (Avon Wheatbelt 02) and Western Mallee (Mallee 02) plus the drier eastern to south-eastern parts of the Jarrah Forest bioregion that lie adjacent to the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion and receive less than 600 mm mean annual rainfall.

[1] IBRA refers to the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia, version 7.

The ecological community generally occupies the flatter, lower elevation landscapes of the wheatbelt region such as plains, valley floors, watercourses/wetlands including the margins of salt lakes, and extends onto breakaways and gravel rises.

The ecological community is a type of woodland, where the trees are usually well spaced and the canopy crown cover is at least 10%. The tree canopy is dominated to co-dominated by one or more of several key species of Eucalyptus listed in Table 1. The eucalypts share a tree or mallet form, i.e.  they typically have an erect, single-stemmed trunk with a variable crown shape. The woodland represents a complex mosaic in which the key eucalypt species may co-occur in various combinations.

The understorey is highly variable in its structure and composition, ranging from almost bare to grassy, herb-rich, shrubby or thicket forms.

The ecological community supports a diverse range of fauna, including black cockatoos, the numbat, malleefowl and chuditch, amongst other species, providing essential resources such as shelter and food for the animals.

Table 1.  Key eucalypt species that occur in the tree canopy of the Eucalypt Woodlands of the Western Australian Wheatbelt ecological community. Within a given patch of the ecological community, one or more of these species are dominant or co-dominant. Scientific are current as at October 2015.

Scientific name	Common name/s
Eucalyptus accedens	powder-bark; powder-bark wandoo
Eucalyptus aequioperta	Welcome Hill gum
Eucalyptus alipes	Hyden mallet
Eucalyptus astringens subsp. astringens	brown mallet
Eucalyptus capillosa	wheatbelt wandoo
Eucalyptus densa subsp. densa	narrow-leaved blue mallet
Eucalyptus extensa	yellow mallet
Eucalyptus falcata	silver mallet
Eucalyptus gardneri subsp. gardneri	blue mallet
Eucalyptus goniocarpa	Lake King mallet
Eucalyptus kondininensis	Kondinin blackbutt
Eucalyptus longicornis	red morrel
Eucalyptus loxophleba subsp. loxophleba	York gum
Eucalyptus melanoxylon	black morrel
Eucalyptus mimica subsp. continens	hooded mallet
Eucalyptus mimica subsp. mimica	Newdegate mallet
Eucalyptus myriadena	small-fruited gum; blackbutt
Eucalyptus occidentalis	flat-topped yate
Eucalyptus ornata	ornamental silver mallet; ornate mallet
Eucalyptus recta	Mt Yule silver mallet; Cadoux mallet
Eucalyptus rudis subsp. rudis	flooded gum
Eucalyptus salicola	salt gum; salt salmon gum
Eucalyptus salmonophloia	salmon gum
Eucalyptus salubris	gimlet
Eucalyptus sargentii subsp. sargentii	salt river gum
Eucalyptus singularis	ridge-top mallet
Eucalyptus spathulata subsp. spathulata	swamp mallet
Eucalyptus spathulata subsp. salina	Salt River mallet
Eucalyptus urna	merrit
Eucalyptus wandoo subsp. pulverea	wandoo
Eucalyptus wandoo subsp. wandoo	wandoo