Flora survey for Hamersley Drive recreation - Environmental ...

FRNP Improvement Project: Culham Inlet to Hamersley Inlet GF Craig– July 2010
2. Methods
The botanical surveys were carried out by Gillian Craig, except for the Declared Rare eucalypts on East
Mt Barren which were surveyed independently by Ellen Hickman (Craig and Hickman 2009). The results
of those surveys have been included here to provide complete documentation of the flora between
Hamersley Inlet and Culham Inlet.
Desktop
A search was made of the Department of Environment and Conservation’s (DEC) Threatened Flora
Database (DEFL), WA Herbarium database (WAHerb) and the Declared Rare and Priority Flora Species
List. The search co-ordinates requested were NW corner: 33 o 45'S 119 o 45'E SE corner: 33 o 57'
120 o 14'E. A search was undertaken of the DEC Threatened Ecological Communities database.
The Commonwealth’s Threatened Flora database was searched to determine the category under the
Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) for listed Threatened flora.
The flora database information was imported into OziExplorer® software to determine those species
likely to occur in the impact area. Digital orthophotos of the Whoogerup (2003- pre-burn) and
Ravensthorpe (2007 – post-burn) map sheets were provided by DEC to use as base imagery.
Scientific licences and a Regulation 4 Authority permit were obtained from DEC to take flora within the
Fitzgerald River National Park. Permission to use digital information was obtained from DEC’s Species
and Community Branch, Kensington.
Previous reports and publications relevant to the region were reviewed.
K.R. Newbey relevés
During 1985 and 1986, the late Ken Newbey recorded plant taxa in 309 relevés in the park with
permanent quadrats marked at 65 of these sites for fauna sampling (Chapman and Newbey 1987). The
plant species data from all Newbey’s relevés within and immediately adjacent to the study area were
databased using the Perth herbarium’s MAX V3 software. Since 1987 there has been considerable
revision of the taxonomy, therefore the author updated Newbey’s species names to current taxonomy
and changed species names to those which are known from the area, e.g. Isopogon attenuatus became
I. polycephalus, and I. buxifolius became Isopogon sp. Fitzgerald River. This information was used to
provide an initial species list for the area.
Eucalypts on East Mt Barren
DEC Albany’s threatened flora files for Eucalyptus coronata and Eucalyptus burdettiana were reviewed
by Ellen Hickman, specific locations of all known population on and around East Mt Barren were
identified and plant numbers were summarised to get an overview of each species.
Orthophotos from the Ravensthorpe sheet (2003 – pre-burn and 2007 – post-burn) were provided by
DEC for use in the field.
Field survey
Hamersley Drive, spur roads and carparks
The survey was carried out according to the Environmental Protection Authority’s Draft Guidance No.51
(EPA 2004). Each side of the road, new alignments and proposed walk paths identified by DEC were
traversed on foot, between the verge and up to 25 m into the undisturbed vegetation. Along each
traverse, boundaries of vegetation units (based on changes in species composition) and threatened flora
were marked as waypoints on the GPS using the GDA94 datum.
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