Appendix 2 - Vegetation Communities and Regional Ecosystems

cover on both satellite formats created significant information gaps, particularly on
Muralug, Mabuiag, Dauan and Saibai Islands.
• Due to unforeseen circumstances, introductory letters sent to Badu Island Council and the
PBC were not received by the appropriate representatives. Therefore the acting PBC
Chair, executive and members had no prior knowledge of the projects purpose, and
subsequently, access to Native Title lands was denied. Access to the small extent of
DOGIT land was granted through Badu Council, however the lack of representative
vegetation communities within the DOGIT land deemed it necessary for a secondary field
trip to be scheduled to cover the entirety of the island. Following liaison with
representatives of Mura Badulgal (Torres Strait Islander) Corporation PBC Body, Badu
Council and the TSRA Land and Sea Management Unit, a second field trip to Badu
Island was carried out between 22 July and 29 July 2008. Access to all areas outside of
Council duristiction was however once again denied on the basis that the PBC body was,
at that time, not a functioning entity and could not therefore facilitate a process to secure
the consent of traditional owners for the survey team to access Native Title lands. The
survey was therefore limited to a small portion of the DOGIT land around Badu village.
• Minimal field data was collected on a number of small islands including atolls throughout
the study area. Whilst such islands are indeed small, a number supported terrestrial
vegetation and would be worthy of inspection. These include the more remote islands
such as Deliverance where review of documentation from previous studies has proved
valuable to achieve a preliminary classification of vegetation communities. The use of
helicopter survey enabled a rapid overview of vegetation structure. In a number of
instances however, assessment of the floristic composition could not be achieved. These
areas include (but are not limited to) rainforest on the steep terrain of Gebar, Mt.
Adolphus, and Naghir Islands which are recommended for on ground assessment during
future field work programs.
• Throughout the survey, every attempt was made to collect detailed site based floristic
data, and provide collections of voucher specimens for species not readily identified in
the field, or for records of poorly collected taxa. A thorough analysis of this floristic data
however remains outside of the project scope. Vouchers of a number of species
necessary for full floristic descriptions of vegetation communities and regional
ecosystems await identification and are referred to with collection numbers throughout.
A detailed floristic analysis utilizing the taxonomic and distributional data collected
during the survey in combination with pre-existing data would be a valuable future
supplement to the study, and would result in a significant contribution to the current
knowledge of plant biogeography of the region.
3d Environmental – Torres Strait Regional Ecosystem Mapping Project – August 2008
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