WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

There is insufficient evidence at this time to suggest that Disaster Bay, Yampi
Peninsula or Walcott Inlet have outstanding heritage value to the nation under
criterion (a) for species richness, endemism or as refugia.
Karst refugia
In their report on the karst fauna of the Kimberley, the authors note that there has
been a general paucity of research, and despite the fact that the limestone ranges of
the Kimberley represent one of the major karst areas of Australia, relatively little
information on the vertebrate and invertebrate fauna has been recorded to date
(Anderson & Anderson, 2010). Cave systems that have been studied to some extent
include the Napier and Oscar ranges, and the relatively small amount of research that
has been undertaken in these ranges points to the likely occurrence of high numbers of
highly endemic invertebrate species within the system as a whole (Anderson &
Anderson, 2010; Humphreys, 1995). Again, there is very little known about these
systems and survey work is required to quantify what heritage values may be present.
There is insufficient information at this time to demonstrate that the karst
systems of the west Kimberley are of outstanding heritage value to the nation
under criterion (a) for species richness, endemism or as refugia.
WEALTH OF LAND AND SEA
Plant richness and endemism
The Kimberley region is made up of a diversity of vegetation communities in
generally good condition, dominated by savanna grassy woodlands. A number of
nominators have claimed that the Kimberley is a region with significant floral
richness and endemism. Clarkson and Kenneally (1988) provide a useful floral
richness comparison between the Kimberley (1,592 species) and Cape York Peninsula
(2,412). Cape York is richer by a factor of 1.5 at the species level, 1.7 at the generic
level and 1.4 at the family level however, it should be noted that proportions have
somewhat shifted since Clarkson and Kenneally's 1988 publication as new taxa in the
Kimberley have been discovered and described (Kenneally, K., pers comm., Nov
2009).
Species richness for Cape York Peninsula is even greater when proportionally
comparing the two study areas: Cape York Peninsula (13.5 million hectares) and the
Kimberley region (30.2 million hectares). Nationally, the richest area for plant species
is recognized as being the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia with
9,500 taxa (Beard et al. 2000; Crisp et al. 2001; DEC 2010). This region (at 31
million hectares) is on an equivalent scale to the Northern Province, dominated by the
Kimberley, which is estimated to have 2,900 plant taxa (DEC 2010), comparatively
far fewer than the southwest. The Northern Territory is estimated have over 4,000
plant species (NRETA 2009), the majority of which are found in the Top End (north
of 18°S) with a secondary refugial concentration around the MacDonnell Ranges
(Bowman 1996).
The Clarkson and Kenneally (1988) analysis ranked families by the number of genera
present and they found Poaceae (grasses) and Fabaceae (i.e. peas, wattles and allies
combined) are most dominant in the Kimberley and Cape York Peninsula. The
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