Category: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs

Kangaroo Island (103)

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Site name: Kangaroo Island
Site number: 103
Point numbers: 409 (Kangaroo Island Dry A), 410 (Kangaroo Island Wet A), 411 (Kangaroo Island Dry B), 412 (Kangaroo Island Wet B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: South Australian Government, Department for Environment and Water
Site location: Coastal South Australia
Latitude: -35.990
Longitude: 137.466
Site description: Kangaroo Island is a large island off the coast of South Australia dominated by woodland. Approximately half of the Kangaroo Island has never been cleared and a quarter of it is conserved. The island is home to an endangered subspecies of the glossy black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus).

Gluepot Reserve (18)

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Site name: Gluepot Reserve
Site number: 18
Point numbers: 69 (Gluepot Reserve Dry A), 70 (Gluepot Reserve Wet A), 71 (Gluepot Reserve Dry B), 72 (Gluepot Reserve Wet B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: Birdlife Australia
Site location: South Eastern South Australia
Latitude: -33.750
Longitude: 140.149
Site description: Gluepot Reserve lies north of the Murray River in the Riverland district of semi-arid South Australia. The property is managed by Birdlife Australia. Gluepot is part of the largest area of intact Mallee left in Australia. Six nationally threatened bird species can be found on Gluepot Reserve and a further 17 regionally threatened bird species.

Monjebup Reserve/SWWA Floristic Region (91)

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Site name: Monjebup Reserve/SWWA Floristic Region
Site number: 91
Point numbers: 361 (Monjebup Dry A), 362 (Monjebup Wet A), 363 (Monjebup Dry B), 364 (Monjebup Wet B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: Bush Heritage Australia
Site location: Southern Western Australia
Latitude: -34.208
Longitude: 118.633
Site description: Monjebup is composed of three reserves that protect Mallee heath in southern Western Australia. The reserves also contribute to the Gondwana Link project which will restore 1000km of bushland from Western Australia’s southwest to the edge of the Nullarbor Plain. Monjebup provides habitat for the vulnerable Malleefowl and Western Whipbird, Carnaby’s Cockatoo and the Tammar Wallaby.

Booroopki (77)

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Site name: Booroopki
Site number: 77
Point numbers: 305 (Booroopki Dry A), 306 (Booroopki Wet A), 307 (Booroopki Dry B), 308 (Booroopki Wet B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: Bank Australia
Site location: Western Victoria
Latitude: -36.82
Longitude: 141.23
Site description: Booroopki protects 166ha of buloke (Allocasuarina luehmannii) woodland in western Victoria. Booroopki is closely associated with other Bank Australia reserves in the region providing a level of connectivity in the landscape.

Katarapko (68)

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Site name: Katarapko
Site number: 68
Point numbers: 269 (Katarapko Dry A), 270 (Katarapko Wet A), 271 (Katarapko Dry B), 272 (Katarapko Wet B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: Department of Environment and Water, South Australia
Site location: Berri, South Australia
Latitude: -34.37
Longitude: 140.54
Site description: The Katarapko site is associated with the Murray River National Park, and is a priority floodplain in South Australia. Katarapko is comprised of floodplains, permanent and ephemeral creeks and wetlands, saline basins, dunes, and aquatic and terrestrial habitats, protecting Red Gum, Black Box, Lignum, River Cooba, and Chenopod and Samphire shrublands.

Little Desert Nature Lodge (74)

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Site name: Little Desert Nature Lodge
Site number: 74
Point numbers: 293 (Little Desert Nature Lodge Wet A), 294 (Little Desert Nature Lodge Dry A), 295 (Little Desert Nature Lodge Wet B), 296 (Little Desert Nature Lodge Dry B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: Little Desert Nature Lodge
Site location: Western Victoria
Latitude: -36.586
Longitude: 141.227
Site description: Little Desert Nature Lodge is an ecotourism property adjacent to the Little Desert National Park. The Nature Lodge protects important habitat for the Mallee Fowl.

Charles Darwin Reserve (7)

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Site name: Charles Darwin Reserve
Site number: 7
Point numbers: 25 (Charles Darwin Reserve Wet A), 26 (Charles Darwin Reserve Dry A), 27 (Charles Darwin Reserve Wet B), 28 (Charles Darwin Reserve Dry B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: Bush Heritage Australia
Site location: South-Central Western Australia
Latitude: -29.62
Longitude: 117.00
Site description: Charles Darwin Reserve lies on the northern edge of the Western Australian wheat belt, extending into the more arid Eremean Province to the north. The reserve falls largely within the Southwest Botanical Province, and its eucalypt woodlands form part of an EPBC-listed Threatened Community.

Great Western Woodlands (58)

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Site name: Great Western Woodlands
Site number: 58
Point numbers: 229 (Great Western Woodlands Dry A), 230 (Great Western Woodlands Wet A), 231 (Great Western Woodlands Wet B), 232 (Great Western Woodlands Dry B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: CSIRO, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Site location: South Western Australia
Latitude: -30.125
Longitude: 120.375
Site description: The Great Western Woodlands (GWW) comprises a 16-million hectare mosaic of temperate woodland, heathland and mallee vegetation in south-west Western Australia. It is the largest remaining intact temperate or ‘Mediterranean’ woodland in the world and is unique in being able to survive on as little as 250 mm annual rainfall. The SuperSite site comprises a mosaic of temperate woodland, heathland and Mallee vegetation.

The region has remained relatively intact since European settlement, owing to the variable rainfall and lack of readily accessible groundwater. Other temperate woodlands around the world have become highly fragmented and degraded through agricultural use.

The GWW thus provides a unique opportunity to study how semi-arid woodland ecosystems function at site and landscape scales, and how naturally functioning, intact ecosystems can adapt to climate change. The woodlands also offer significant potential to inform climate-resilient restoration of the Western Australian wheatbelt.

Research at GWW is managed by CSIRO in collaboration with the Department of Parks and Wildlife WA, land managers and Traditional Owners, and is home to the Great Western Woodland TERN SuperSite.

Gingin (57)

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Site name: Gingin
Site number: 57
Point numbers: 225 (Gingin Dry A), 226 (Gingin Dry B), 227 (Gingin Wet B), 228 (Gingin Wet A)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: Edith Cowan University, The University of Western Australia, CSIRO, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Site location: South Western Australia
Latitude: -31.376
Longitude: 115.714
Site description: Gingin Banksia Woodland TERN SuperSite is located on the Swan Coastal Plain, approximately 10 km southwest of Gingin, near Perth, Western Australia, sited on land traditionally owned by the Yued group of the Noongar people. The site has an elevation of 51 m and 2 km from the University of Western Australia International Gravity Wave Observatory.

The Gingin Banksia Woodland SuperSite is located in a natural woodland of high species diversity (overstorey dominated by Banksia spp.) that overlays the Gnangara groundwater mound, Perth’s most important groundwater resource. The mean annual precipitation is 641mm for this coastal heath woodland. The overstorey is dominated by Banksia spp. mainly B. menziesii, B. attenuata, and B. grandis with a height of around 7 m and leaf area index of about 0.8. There are occasional stands of eucalypts and acacia that reach to 10 m and have a denser foliage cover.

There are many former wetlands dotted around the woodland, most of which were inundated all winter and some had permanent water 30 years ago. The water table has now fallen below the base of these systems and they are disconnected and are no longer permanently wet. The fine sediments, sometimes diatomaceous, hold water and they have perched water tables each winter. There is a natural progression of species accompanying this process as they gradually become more dominated by more xeric species.

The soils are mainly Podosol sands, with low moisture holding capacity. Field capacity typically about 8 to 10%, and in summer these generally hold less than 2% moisture. The water table is at about 8.5 m below the surface, and a WA Dept of water long-term monitoring piezometer is near the base of the OzFlux tower.

Boyagin Nature Reserve (55)

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Site name: Boyagin Nature Reserve
Site number: 55
Point numbers: 217 (Boyagin Dry A), 218 (Boyagin Dry B), 219 (Boyagin Wet A), 220 (Boyagin Wet B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: University of Western Australia, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Site location: South Western Australia
Latitude: -32.471
Longitude: 116.863
Site description: The Boyagin Wandoo Woodland SuperSite was established in the Boyagin Nature Reserve in September 2017 by the University of Western Australia. The Boyagin Nature Reserve lies approximately 12 km west of Pingelly, Western Australia. The SuperSite monitoring activities complement the Avon River Catchment Critical Zone Observatory at the UWA Future Farm in Pingelly that focuses on managed landscapes (rotational dryland wheat cropping and grazing pastures for sheep). The climate is Semi-arid (Dry) Warm Mediterranean.

The site provides nationally consistent observations of vegetation dynamics, faunal biodiversity, micrometeorology (climate, radiation, fluxes of carbon and water), hydrology and biogeochemistry to examine the impacts of disturbance, climate on carbon stocks and Green House Gas emissions, and impacts on habitat quality via ongoing monitoring of vegetation structure and fauna. A wide range of ground based observations of vegetation structure and floristics is planned and all will link to remote sensing of fire and vegetation change over time. Measurements of carbon sequestration through time will be achieved via the TERN OzFlux instrumentation capable of directly measuring CO2, water use and surface energy properties (energy balance, reflectance).

Boyagin SuperSite is located in the Avon Wheatbelt (AW2-Re-juvenated Drainage subregion) and has a high density of rare and geographically restricted flora and supports populations of several marsupials subject to fox predation (Numbat, Quenda, Woylie, Tammar, Red-tailed Phascogale, Brushtail Possum) that have disappeared from most of the Australian or Western Australian mainland.