What's Happened with WIRES

To those people who have managed to persevere with my erratic blogging up to now, thank you. I am still planning on posting about my experiences with WIRES once I join and will write about my progress as I slowly gain skills.

Bioregions - An Introduction

Overview

When deciding how best to define the region of the far south coast of New South Wales that I wish to refer to here in this blog, I decided on using the data provided for bioregions from the New South Wales National parks and Wildlife Service - NPWS. Bioregions are areas set out according to geographical, topographical, environmental, natural and climatic characteristics and the biodiversity of habitats. Australia has 85 of these regions with 17 in NSW, 2 completely within its borders and 15 sharing some area with the adjoining states.

Planning for biodiversity at this scale recognises the significance of natural processes and gives Australia the greatest opportunity of conserving biodiversity in sufficient numbers and distribution to maximise its chance of long-term survival.

Biodiversity is influenced by but does not recognise administrative boundaries, which is a good reason to use a bioregional approach to assess all land across a region when looking at it from an environmental and conservation perspective.

Serpent Rock

Gulaga Mountain.

South East Corner Bioregion

The far south east corner of NSW shares part of its area with Victoria to make up the South East Corner Bioregion. As the name suggests, this bioregion is in the southeast corner of NSW with a total area of 2,707,639 hectares that extends into Victoria. The NSW portion of the bioregion is in two parts; the main body of the bioregion is bordered by Sydney Basin Bioregion to the north and the South Eastern Highlands Bioregion to the west, while a small outlying fragment lies between the Australian Alps and South Eastern Highlands bioregions. Together these areas occupy 48.09 per cent of the bioregion at an area of 1,302,141 hectares or 1.63 per cent of NSW. The eastern border of the region is defined by the coastline of the Pacific Ocean.

Subregions

Bioregions are further broken into subregions which assess areas according to their geographical and landform characteristics, soil types and vegetation. This type of detailed knowledge for a region is vital when it comes to issues of land and resource utilisation.

In the South East Corner region there are a further three subregions.

1. Bateman:- The characteristic landform of this subregion is a line of steep hills that lay below the escarpment. They run on a north-south orientation but their direction is ultimately defined by the underlaying rock structure. These hills decrease in size as you near the coast before a slight up-rise along the coastline.
2. East Gippsland Uplands:- There is a very abrupt margin along the Great Escarpment and numerous waterfalls and deep gorges are found here. Rolling hills of Bega granite at lower altitudes and small beach and dune system along the coast.
3. East Gippsland Lowlands:- Low rounded hills on granite but somewhat higher and steeper on sandstone. Strong dune, beach and lagoon barrier systems on the coast, particularly at Cape Howe, where there is extensive dune formation for quite a distance inland.

Soil Types

Various soil types are found in the region In the Bateman subregion they are mostly texture contrast soils. Red clay subsoils with thin topsoil on metamorphic rocks, deeper coarser grained profiles on granite. Red brown structured loams on basalt and deep siliceous sands with some podsol development on Tertiary sands and coastal dunes. The East Gippsland Uplands are characterised by having coarse texture contrast soils on granite, thinner profiles on metamorphics with red and yellow clay subsoils. Deep coarse sands in granite derived alluvium often deposited in swampy valley flats. Deep fine sands in dunes. Peaty sands occur in lagoons and swamps. East Gippsland Lowlands subregion comprises coarse texture contrast soils on granite that are subject to high rates of erosion even under forest cover. Deep sands in dunes. Peaty sands in lagoons and swamps.

Vegetation

Due to the varied topography, altitudes, rainfall and climate throughout the region, there is a wide diversity in the flora that makes up the plant communities present. Along the coast in many areas you will find heathland dominated by stands of Hakea sericea, Melaleuca armillaris, Coast Rosemary (Westringia fruticosa) and Dwarf Red Bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera syn. Eucalyptus gummifera). There are also Banksia marginata and B. serrata growing here and in some places Correa alba is very common and forms some quite sizable thickets. Bangalay (Eucalyptus botryoides) is one of the first larger trees you will encounter as you head inland. In places they grow very close to the ocean or other body of water and are quite salt tolerant. Blackbutt (E. pilularis) grows here too.

Typical Coastline

As you move further inland, forests of Spotted Gum (Ecalyptus maculata) and larger specimens of Red Bloodwood are found up to around 300m elevation, but are at there most prolific around 100-200m. Yellow Stringybark (Eucalyptus muelleriana), Grey Ironbark (E. paniculata) and Woollybutt (E. longifolia) associations are found, with Brown Barrel (E. fastigata), Blue-leaved Stringybark (E. agglomerata), Messmate (E. obliqua) and Monkey Gum (E. cypellocarpa) found growing to about 900m. Narrow-leaved Peppermint (E. radiata) and Snow Gum (E. pauciflora) are common at the highest altitudes. Changes in latitude also dictate the makeup of plant communities and floras throughout the region, with Sydney Peppermint (Eucalyptus piperita), Sydney Blue Gum (E. saligna), Spotted Gum (E. maculata) and Large-fruited Mahogany (E. pellita) found growing at the northern end of the region and Bangalay (E. botryoides), Blue Box (E. bauerana), Coastal Grey Box (E. bosistoana) and Woollybutt (E. longifolia) occurring in the southern areas. There are also small pockets of temperate rainforest found here,with Sassafras (Doryphora sassafras) and Lilly Pilly (Acmena smithii) occur in gully heads and as a gallery forest along major streams in sheltered locations. River Oak (Casuarina cunninghamiana) is also present along most steams.

Trees in Fog

I hope this has given some insight into this part of NSW, as it is truly a magical place with features that are worth working hard to conserve. I plan to write more about the natural history of this area, but in the meantime, why don't you check out the bioregion you live in and gain an insight as to what makes where you live special.