Soil-Landscapes of Western Australia's Rangelands and Arid Interior
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ISSN 1039-7205 Resource Management Technical Report 313 Soil-landscapes of Western Australia’s Rangelands and Arid Interior By Peter Tille December 2006 Disclaimer: While all reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of the material in this document, the Western Australian Government and its officers accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions it may contain, whether caused by negligence, or otherwise or for any loss, however caused, sustained by any person who relies on it. © State of Western Australia, 2006 SOIL-LANDSCAPE ZONES OF THE WA RANGELANDS AND INTERIOR CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 4 2. EXISTING MAPPING AND DATA.............................................................................. 5 2.1 The Agricultural Area and the mapping unit hierarchy .......................................... 5 2.2 The Rangelands.................................................................................................. 10 2.3 The Atlas of Australian Soils................................................................................ 16 3. METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................... 17 3.1 Hierarchy level of map units ................................................................................ 17 3.2 Identifying soil-landscape regions, provinces and zones .................................... 17 3.3 Drawing boundaries and assigning map unit link labels...................................... 23 3.4 Edge-matching survey......................................................................................... 25 3.5 System descriptions ............................................................................................ 26 3.6 Compiling region, province and zone descriptions.............................................. 27 4. REGION, PROVINCE AND ZONE DESCRIPTIONS............................................... 30 1 SANDY DESERT REGION............................................................................................... 35 11 Canning Province .......................................................................................... 38 12 Gunbarrel Province ....................................................................................... 42 13 Officer Province............................................................................................. 46 15 Paterson-Yeneena Province ......................................................................... 48 2 WESTERN REGION ....................................................................................................... 51 20 Exmouth Province ......................................................................................... 56 22 Greenough Province ..................................................................................... 59 23 Carnarvon Province....................................................................................... 63 24 Stirling Province ............................................................................................ 69 25 Avon Province ............................................................................................... 73 26 Kalgoorlie Province ....................................................................................... 77 27 Murchison Province....................................................................................... 82 28 Fortescue Province ....................................................................................... 88 29 Ashburton Province ....................................................................................... 93 3 KIMBERLEY REGION ..................................................................................................... 98 31 Southern Kimberley Ranges Province.......................................................... 101 33 Fitzroy Province........................................................................................... 106 34 Kimberley Plateau Province ........................................................................ 110 4 LANDER-BARKLY PLAINS REGION ............................................................................... 114 42 Sturt Plateau Province................................................................................. 116 2 SOIL-LANDSCAPE ZONES OF THE WA RANGELANDS AND INTERIOR 5 CENTRAL SOUTHERN REGION .....................................................................................119 55 Nullarbor Province........................................................................................121 58 Tarcoola-Quondong Province ......................................................................124 6 Central Australian Ranges Region............................................................................125 61 Western Desert Ranges Province................................................................127 7 Northern Australian Plateaux Region........................................................................130 71 Bonaparte-Diemen Lowlands Province........................................................132 72 Ord-Victoria Plateaux Province ....................................................................134 5. RECOMMENDED FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS.....................................................136 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................137 7. REFERENCES .......................................................................................................138 8. APPENDICES Appendix 1. Example of land system description .......................................................144 Appendix 2. Physiographic Divisions of Jennings and Mabbutt (1977) ......................146 Appendix 3. The 47 rangeland land types ..................................................................150 Appendix 4. Proposed additional rangeland land types..............................................153 3 SOIL-LANDSCAPE ZONES OF THE WA RANGELANDS AND INTERIOR 1. INTRODUCTION Western Australia has seen a great deal of land resource mapping over the past 40 years, but at varying scales of intensity and the only consistent coverage across the entire State remained the Atlas of Australian Soils published in the late 1960s. This report documents the process of placing the most recent and detailed mapping of Western Australia’s Rangelands and Arid Interior that is available into a hierarchy of soil-landscape mapping units. It also provides descriptions of the soil-landscape regions, provinces and zones identified. These updated maps and descriptions will form part of Western Australia’s contribution to the Australian Soil Resource Information System (ASRIS), describing the upper four levels of the mapping hierarchy. ASRIS was initiated through the National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) in 1999. It is designed to provide on-line access to the best available soil and land resource information across Australia in a consistent format (ASRIS 2006). A hierarchy of mapping units with seven levels will allow for comprehensive reporting on land suitability and soil resources from the National down to the Sub-regional scale. Initially, ASRIS aims to provide descriptions of the soils and landscapes of the upper three levels of the hierarchy across the entire continent. The lower levels containing more detailed scaled information will be added as they become available. A consistent set of land qualities is described for map units (tracts). Descriptions from the lowest level of the hierarchy feed into summaries at higher levels. Information relates to soil thickness, water storage, permeability, salinity, fertility, and erodibility. ASRIS includes a soil profile database with fully characterised and representative sites. While the mapping for the Agricultural Area of Western Australia was already in a suitable format for inclusion into the ASRIS hierarchy, the surveys covering the Rangelands and Arid Interior only showed a single level of mapping. As such they could not be directly included into either the hierarchy used by ASRIS or in the Department of Agriculture’s Map Unit Database (Schoknecht et al. 2004). Adapting the Rangeland and Arid Interior surveys into the top four levels of the mapping hierarchy in Western Australia has led to the creation and description of 2 previously unidentified soil-landscape regions (hierarchy level 1), 18 new soil-landscape provinces (hierarchy level 2) and 95 new soil-landscape zones (hierarchy level 3). In addition, the descriptions of four previously identified regions, six existing provinces and 12 existing zones have been updated. Around 1787 new soil-landscape systems (hierarchy level 4) have also been created and added to the Department’s Map Unit Database. The soil-landscape descriptions contained in this report, along with the associated digital mapping and data stored Map Unit Database, represent a major advance in the provision of natural resource information in Western Australia. They enable a consistent presentation and analysis of soil and landform data across the State. This work complements Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) prepared by Environment Australia (2000). They enable data from localised areas to be assessed in a regional, statewide or national context. Through ASRIS, the work described in this report will form part of Australia’s contribution to the Global Soil and Terrain Database