WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

also speculates that patterns in the present day fish distributions are a result of
climatic patterns and sea level changes. As fish are limited to the persistence of
freshwater, and because of the high relative rate of endemism of the freshwater fish
fauna of the Kimberley, the region has the potential to tell us much about long term
changes in the Australian environment, the drying of the continent and its related
evolutionary refugial role (Dave Morgan pers. comm. November 2009).
Research in recent years on freshwater turtles has shown the importance of rivers of
the Kimberley for endemic turtle species. Endemic to northwest Australia, most
populations of the recently described bearded longneck turtle (Macrochelodina
walloyarrina) and the sympatric M. kuchlingi are found in the Mitchell, King Edward
and Drysdale river systems (McCord and Joseph–Ouni 2007). Chelodina
burrungandjii, another endemic to the Kimberley, inhabits streams and associated
billabongs of the sandstone plateaus and associated escarpment country. This high
endemism was supported by an ANHAT analysis which returned the second highest
national Chelidae (side-necked tortoises) endemism score for mapsheets
encompassing the northwest Kimberley, particularly in the Drysdale River region.
High endemism for turtles further supports the freshwater fish argument that the
Kimberley Plateau river systems have played an important evolutionary refugial role.
The Drysdale, Prince Regent, Roe, Moran, Carson, Isdell, Mitchell and King
Edward Rivers are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion
(a) as areas of evolutionary refugia demonstrated by nationally high values for
freshwater fish and turtle endemism.
Wetlands, waterholes and mound springs
In their report on a synthesis of scientific knowledge of the Kimberley, DEC (2009)
state that wetlands of the Kimberley are 'an important resource for waterbirds and
provide refugia during the dry season for many savanna species, as well as containing
a vast array of aquatic species…' The severity of the dry season is such that, for many
months and over large areas of the Kimberley arid tropics, surface water resources are
restricted to a few permanent or semi-permanent water holes and streams, which
become key refugial foci in the landscape, particularly for migratory birds.
No systematic survey of wetlands has been undertaken across the Kimberley (Vernes
2007) but four Ramsar listed sites and 21 'nationally important wetlands' are found
within the Kimberley as a whole ('Nationally important wetlands' are those wetlands
that are documented in the Directory of Important Wetlands (DEH 2001), which is not
synonymous with national significance as defined by the National Heritage criteria).
Only one listed Ramsar site occurs in the west Kimberley region – Roebuck Bay. Of
the 'nationally important wetlands', 15 occur in the west Kimberley study area. They
range from the seasonally inundated Roebuck Plains, to the Camballin Floodplain of
the Fitzroy River system, to the mound springs and wetlands on Dampier Peninsula,
and the discrete sites at Tunnel Creek and Windjana and Geikie Gorges within the
creeks and rivers of the Oscar and Napier Ranges. The entire river systems of the
Prince Regent and Drysdale Rivers are also listed in the Directory.
In 2001, the authors of the Western Australian chapter in the Directory of Important
Wetlands noted that Western Australia has at least 2,000 wetland plant species
recorded, and that endemism among wetland flora is high, particularly in the
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