Flora and Vegetation Survey and Terrestrial Fauna Survey for Shamrock Station Irrigation Project Prepared for Argyle Cattle Company Pty Ltd
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Flora and vegetation survey and terrestrial fauna survey for Shamrock Station Irrigation Project Prepared for Argyle Cattle Company Pty Ltd August 2017 Final Report Flora and vegetation survey and terrestrial fauna survey fauna survey for Shamrock Station Irrigation Project Prepared for Argyle Cattle Company Pty Ltd Flora and vegetation survey and terrestrial fauna survey fauna survey for the Shamrock Station Irrigation Project Prepared for Argyle Cattle Company Pty Ltd Final Report Authors: Ryan Ellis, Grant Wells Reviewer: Karen Crews, Grace Wells Date: 1 August 2017 Submitted to: Cameron McDonald (Australian Standard Agriculture) Version history Name Task Version Date K. Crews Draft for client comments 1.0 27 July 2017 K. Crews Final submitted to client 1.1 1 August 2017 ©Phoenix Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd 2017 The use of this report is solely for the Client for the purpose in which it was prepared. 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Phoenix Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd 1/511 Wanneroo Rd BALCATTA WA 6021 P: 08 9345 1608 F: 08 6313 0680 E: [email protected] Project code: 1147-SIP-AC-ECO Flora and vegetation survey and terrestrial fauna survey fauna survey for Shamrock Station Irrigation Project Prepared for Argyle Cattle Company Pty Ltd Contents CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................ I LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... II LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ II LIST OF APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................. III EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... IV 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Survey objective and scope .................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Study area ............................................................................................................................... 1 2 LEGISLATIVE CONTEXT .................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Commonwealth ....................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 State ........................................................................................................................................ 4 2.2.1 Threatened and Priority species ..................................................................................... 4 2.2.2 Threatened and Priority Ecological Communities ........................................................... 4 2.2.3 Significant flora and vegetation ...................................................................................... 5 2.2.4 Clearing of native vegetation .......................................................................................... 5 2.2.5 Environmentally Sensitive Areas ..................................................................................... 6 2.3 Introduced flora ...................................................................................................................... 6 3 EXISTING ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................................................ 7 3.1 Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia ............................................................... 7 3.2 Land systems ........................................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Climate and weather ............................................................................................................. 11 3.4 Land use ................................................................................................................................ 12 3.5 Conservation reserves and Environmentally Sensitive Areas ............................................... 12 3.6 Threatening processes .......................................................................................................... 12 4 METHODS ...................................................................................................................................... 13 4.1 Desktop review ..................................................................................................................... 13 4.1.1 Database searches and literature review ..................................................................... 13 4.1.2 Habitat assessment ....................................................................................................... 13 4.2 Field survey ........................................................................................................................... 14 4.2.1 Flora and vegetation ..................................................................................................... 14 4.2.2 Fauna and fauna habitat ............................................................................................... 18 4.2.1 Taxonomy and nomenclature ....................................................................................... 21 4.3 Survey personnel .................................................................................................................. 21 5 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................ 22 5.1 Desktop review ..................................................................................................................... 22 5.1.1 Flora and vegetation ..................................................................................................... 22 5.1.2 Fauna and fauna habitat ............................................................................................... 26 5.2 Field survey ........................................................................................................................... 30 5.2.1 Flora and vegetation ..................................................................................................... 30 Phoenix Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd i Flora and vegetation survey and terrestrial fauna survey fauna survey for Shamrock Station Irrigation Project Prepared for Argyle Cattle Company Pty Ltd 5.2.2 Fauna and fauna habitats.............................................................................................. 45 5.3 Survey limitations ................................................................................................................. 53 6 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................... 55 6.1 Flora and vegetation ............................................................................................................. 55 6.1.1 Conservation significant flora ....................................................................................... 56 6.1.2 Vegetation ..................................................................................................................... 57 6.2 Vertebrate fauna ................................................................................................................... 57 7 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 64 List of Figures Figure 1-1 Project location and study area ...................................................................................... 2 Figure 3-1 IBRA region of the study area ......................................................................................... 8 Figure 3-2 Land system of the study area ...................................................................................... 10 Figure 3-3 Annual climate and weather data for Bidyadanga Community (no. 003030) (BoM 2017) and mean monthly data for the 12 months preceding the field survey ............. 11 Figure 4-1 Flora and vegetation survey sites ................................................................................. 15 Figure 4-2 Terrestrial fauna survey sites ........................................................................................ 19 Figure 5-1 Desktop records of conservation significant flora and ecological communities .......... 23