WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

the southwest of Western Australia is largely comprised of a different suite of genera,
this region's endemism is far stronger and more widespread than the smaller pockets
found within the Kimberley. While there is a degree of endemism associated with
Fabaceous pea shrubs found in the Kimberley, there are comparable sites of
significance in the Northern Territory and along the east coast.
While additional surveys have taken place across the Kimberley since this time, there
is still considerable botanical research needed within the northwest of Australia.
The Kimberley as a bioregion is unlikely to have outstanding heritage value to
the nation under criterion (a) for floral species richness and/or endemism.
Marine environment
The largely unknown near shore marine environment of the Kimberley includes a
range of benthic filter–feeding and coral communities and reef systems. One of these
coral communities, Montgomery Reef, may feature rare emergent platform reefs,
although their lithology is currently not resolved. The macrotidal range of the region
exposes these platforms by up to four metres at low tide. However despite its
remarkable features, this 'reef' has been little studied. Research is underway by the
Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI) which may help to
determine the uniqueness and National Heritage significance of the Kimberley marine
environment, particularly for coral communities and sponges. Insufficient national
data about nearshore marine environments at present precludes detailed comparative
analysis and hence a determination of the regional and National Heritage significance
of these systems (Wilson 2009a; Wilson 2009b).
There is insufficient data to demonstrate that the biology of the Kimberley
marine environment has outstanding heritage value to the nation for species
richness or endemism.
Antiquity of the long distance movement of material (marine shell beads) by
Aboriginal people
Exceptional preservation conditions provided by rock shelters in remnant Devonian
reef formations in the west Kimberley provide evidence that long distance trade
networks may have been operating during the Pleistocene, some 30,000 years ago.
Marine shell beads (Scaphopoda/Dentalium sp.) were found in inland rock shelter
occupation deposits in the Lawford (Riwi cave: Balme 2000) and Napier Ranges
(Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter: O'Connor 1995). Carpenter's Gap 1 is also known as
Jambarurru to Bunuba people (S. Pannell pers. comm. 5 May 2010 and Tangalma to
the Unggumi (Playford 1960, 2007).
Given that no unmodified marine shells of this species have been found at either Riwi
or Carpenter's Gap 1, it is likely that the shell beads were processed elsewhere,
possibly on the coast at their source, and were transported to the inland rock shelters
either directly by their manufacturers or through a system of exchange (Balme and
Morse 2006). At the time when the shell beads were deposited, the Kimberley
coastline would have been located some 500 kilometres from Riwi, and about 300
kilometres from Carpenter's Gap.
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