Byron Flora and Fauna Study 1999 - Byron Shire Council

A GREENPRINT FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
establishment conditions and land use practices. Shade and ornamental plantings, particularly in school
grounds, have acted as centres for dispersal, with greatest concentration of the species within 2 km of these
centres at the time of his study. Firth found that red krasnozem soils were the preferred substrate, and
abandoned banana plantations were frequently seen to be ready colonisation sites. Localities with the greatest
cover were centred in old banana plantations at Upper Coopers Creek, The Pocket, Possum Creek and
Wilsons Creek, mostly on valley sides adjacent to meandering creeks. Each of these areas had their source in
old planted trees in school grounds.
These general patterns can be discerned again in the results of this study, but differences in the methodologies
between the two mapping exercises do not permit detailed or quantitative comparisons.
Firth (1979) noted that the lowland areas of Byron Shire were colonised widely, perhaps because the red
krasnozem alluvium may be more suited to establishment of Camphor Laurel than the yellow earth and
chocolate soil alluvium in similar environments elsewhere.
Firth also found that no Camphor Laurel had invaded the eucalypt wet sclerophyll forest vegetation on the
Nightcap, Gibbergunyah and Koonyum Ranges. Most of these forests were outside the study area, but the
mapping of 601 ha of eucalypt spp. and/or Brush Box Lophostemon confertus + Camphor Laurel (Table 4.4)
in this study may be indicative of increasing invasion of Camphor Laurel into sclerophyll forests. Recent
observations suggest that in the hinterland Camphor Laurel is readily establishing in wet sclerophyll forest
with a sparse understorey. This is particularly evident beneath roost sites of the Topknot Pigeon and/or Pied
Currawong (Hank Bower, pers. comm).
4.6.4 Abundance and distribution of old growth eucalypt forest
Old growth eucalypt forests have significant habitat value for hollow-dependent Threatened fauna species.
These include Stephen’s Banded Snake, the large forest owls and a number of arboreal marsupials and
microchiropteran bats (Section 6).
The extent of senescence in crowns of eucalypts, as assessed from API, shows that most of the Shire’s
eucalypt-dominated forest has little or no old growth component (Table 4.6), reflecting a history of logging,
clearing or inappropriate fire regimes.
Table 4.6 Old growth eucalypt forest - % of eucalypt crowns showing senescence
% of eucalypt crowns showing area (ha) % of % of Shire
senescence eucalypt (NP, NR
dominated and SF)
vegetation
30% 510.27 13.32 0.99
TOTAL 3829.92 100.00 7.44
A map of eucalypt old growth (Map 5) shows areas with high old growth values bordering Mount Jerusalem
National Park. Small areas with intermediate old growth values include the Taylors Lake-Broken Head area,
bordering Tyagarah Nature Reserve, Brunswick Heads, Marshalls Creek and around Goonengerry.
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