APPENDIX E TERRESTRIAL FLORA ASSESSMENT HUNTER ECO July 2013 Wilpinjong Coal Mine Modification Terrestrial Flora Assessment By Hunter Eco July 2013 HUNTER ECO July 2013 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Scope of this Report 5 2 EXISTING ENVIRONMENT 7 2.1 Regional Location 7 2.2 Climate 7 2.3 Geology and Soils 7 2.4 Landform and Hydrology 9 2.5 Land Use 12 2.6 Vegetation 12 2.6.1 Vegetation Communities Mapped in the Modification Open Cut Extension Areas 12 2.7 Habitat Connectivity 12 3 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 15 3.1 Flora Species 15 3.2 Vegetation Communities 15 3.3 Threatened Flora Species 16 4 SUPPLEMENTARY FIELD SURVEY METHODS 21 4.1 Flora 21 4.1.1 Threatened Flora 21 4.2 Vegetation Communities 22 4.3 SEPP 44 Koala Habitat 23 5 SUPPLEMENTARY FIELD SURVEY RESULTS 24 5.1 Flora 24 5.1.1 Threatened Flora Species and Populations 24 HUNTER ECO July 2013 5.1.2 Vegetation Communities 25 5.1.3 Threatened Flora Populations 31 6 IMPACT EVALUATION 32 6.1 Potential Direct Impacts 32 6.1.1 Loss of Native Vegetation 32 6.1.2 Impacts on Habitat Connectivity 33 6.1.3 Changes to Hydrology 33 6.1.4 Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems 33 6.2 Potential Indirect Impacts 33 6.2.1 Introduced Flora 33 6.2.2 Hydrology 33 6.2.3 Dust 34 6.2.4 Phytophthora cinnamomi 34 6.3 Cumulative Impacts on Biodiversity 34 7 THREATENED SPECIES ASSESSMENT 36 7.1 Threatened Species 36 7.2 Endangered Populations 36 8 IMPACT ASSESSMENT 37 8.1 Threatened Flora Species 37 8.2 Threatened Ecological Communities 38 8.3 Conclusion 39 9 IMPACT AVOIDANCE, MITIGATION AND OFFSET MEASURES 40 9.1 Existing Impact Avoidance and Mitigation Measures at the Wilpinjong Coal Mine 40 9.2 Proposed Biodiversity Offset Strategy 44 9.2.1 Offset Principles 44 9.2.2 Wilpinjong Modification Proposed Biodiversity Offset 44 9.2.3 Reconciliation of the Proposed Biodiversity Offset Strategy against OEH Offset Principles 50 9.2.4 Long-Term Protection of the Biodiversity Offset 51 9.3 Summary of Ecological Gains of the Proposed Biodiversity Offset 52 HUNTER ECO July 2013 10 CONCLUSION 53 11 REFERENCES 54 APPENDIX 1 FLORA SPECIES FROM FLORASEARCH (2005) 57 APPENDIX 2 FLORA SPECIES RECORDED IN THE MODIFICATION OPEN CUT EXTENSION AREAS 64 APPENDIX 3 FLORISTIC SAMPLE PLOT DATA 67 APPENDIX 4 VEGETATION COMMUNITY PROFILES 81 APPENDIX 5 BIODIVERSITY OFFSET – FLORA REPORT 92 TABLES TABLE 1 FLORASEARCH (2005) VEGETATION COMMUNITIES MAPPED IN THE MODIFICATION OPEN CUT EXTENSION AREAS 13 TABLE 2 SUMMARY OF DOCUMENTS PROVIDING BACKGROUND INFORMATION 17 TABLE 3 COMMUNITIES CLASSIFIED AND MAPPED BY FLORASEARCH 18 TABLE 4 COMPARISON BETWEEN FLORASEARCH AND GREATER HUNTER VEGETATION COMMUNITIES 18 TABLE 5 BRAUN-BLANQUET COVER-ABUNDANCE SCORES 21 TABLE 6 THREATENED FLORA SPECIES AND POPULATIONS POTENTIALLY OCCURRING IN THE MODIFICATION OPEN CUT EXTENSION AREAS 22 TABLE 7 THREATENED FLORA SPECIES AND POPULATIONS LIKELIHOOD OF OCCURRENCE IN THE MODIFICATION OPEN CUT EXTENSION AREAS 24 TABLE 8 VEGETATION COMMUNITIES MAPPED ACROSS THE MODIFICATION OPEN CUT EXTENSION AREAS 26 TABLE 9 SUMMARY OF VEGETATION CLASSES TO BE CLEARED IN THE MODIFICATION OPEN CUT EXTENSION AREAS 32 HUNTER ECO July 2013 TABLE 10 ASSESSMENT OF THE LIKELIHOOD OF THREATENED FLORA OCCURRING IN THE MODIFICATION OPEN CUT EXTENSION AREAS 36 TABLE 11 EXISTING IMPACT AVOIDANCE AND MITIGATION MEASURES AT THE WILPINJONG COAL MINE – REHABILITATION MANAGEMENT PLAN 41 TABLE 12 VEGETATION DISTURBANCE AND BIODIVERSITY OFFSET 45 TABLE 13 BOX-GUM WOODLAND EEC – DISTURBANCE AND BIODIVERSITY OFFSET 49 TABLE 14 FLORISTIC DIVERSITY COMPARISON 49 TABLE 15 RECONCILIATION OF THE PROPOSED BIODIVERSITY OFFSET STRATEGY AGAINST OEH OFFSET PRINCIPLES 50 FIGURES FIGURE 1 REGIONAL LOCATION 2 FIGURE 2 PROJECT LOCATION (AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH – JANUARY 2013) 3 FIGURE 3 GENERAL ARRANGEMENT INCORPORATING THE MODIFICATION 4 FIGURE 4 MONTHLY AVERAGE RAINFALL RECORDS FROM WOLLAR, WILPINJONG COAL MINE 2012 MONTHLY FIGURES AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO 8 FIGURE 5 THE AVERAGE OF MONTHLY LTA TEMPERATURES FOR MUDGEE AND GULGONG 8 FIGURE 6 TOPOGRAPHY OF THE WILPINJONG COAL MINE MINING LEASE AND SURROUNDING AREA 10 FIGURE 7 ELEVATION AND SLOPE ACROSS THE WILPINJONG COAL MINE MINING LEASE AND SURROUNDS 11 FIGURE 8 HABITAT CONNECTIVITY PRIOR TO WILPINJONG COAL MINE 14 HUNTER ECO July 2013 FIGURE 9 VEGETATION COMMUNITIES MAPPED BY FLORASEARCH (2005) OVER WILPINJONG COAL MINE MINING LEASE AND HUNTER ECO OVER THE MODIFICATION OPEN CUT EXTENSION AREAS 28 FIGURE 10 MDS SHOWING RELATIVE SIMILARITY BETWEEN WOODLAND SAMPLE PLOTS 29 FIGURE 11 LOCATION OF THE BIODIVERSITY OFFSET AREAS 45 FIGURE 12 BIODIVERSITY OFFSET AREA D 46 FIGURE 13 BIODIVERSITY OFFSET AREA E 47 HUNTER ECO July 2013 1 Introduction 1.1 Background The Wilpinjong Coal Mine is an existing open cut coal mining operation situated approximately 40 kilometres (km) north-east of Mudgee, near the Village of Wollar, within the Mid-Western Regional Council (MWRC) Local Government Area, in central New South Wales (NSW) (Figure 1). The Wilpinjong Coal Mine is owned and operated by Wilpinjong Coal Pty Limited (WCPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Peabody Energy Australia Pty Limited. Mining is undertaken within Mining Lease (ML) 1573 and the approved open cut and contained infrastructure area at the Wilpinjong Coal Mine comprises approximately 1,920 hectares (ha) (Figure 2). The Wilpinjong Coal Mine was approved under Part 3A of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, 1979 (EP&A Act) by the NSW Minister for Planning in February 2006 (Project Approval 05-0021). The mine has been operating since 2006, and is approved to produce up to 15 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of run-of-mine (ROM) coal from six open cut pits (Figure 2). The Wilpinjong Coal Mine produces both washed and unwashed coal products. The coal handling and processing infrastructure has been designed to accommodate the processing of raw coal and the handling of raw (bypass) and washed product coal. The Project Approval currently allows for the beneficiation of up to 8.5 million tonnes (Mt) of ROM coal in the Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) per year and up to 12.5 Mtpa of thermal coal products from the Wilpinjong Coal Mine are transported by rail to domestic customers for use in electricity generation and to port for export. Following a review of mine planning, CHPP capacity, waste rock bulking factors, planned building and demolition works and light vehicle servicing requirements, WCPL has determined that a number of minor alterations to the approved Wilpinjong Coal Mine are required, including: • development of incremental extensions to the existing open cut pits (Figure 3) that would extend the open cuts by approximately 70 ha and would result in the recovery of approximately 3 Mt of additional ROM coal; • higher rates of annual waste rock production (from 28 million bank cubic metres [Mbcm] up to approximately 33.3 Mbcm) in order to maintain approved ROM coal production; • minor CHPP upgrades to improve fine coal reject management (installation of a belt press filter) and an increase in the rate of ROM coal beneficiation in the CHPP to approximately 9 Mtpa; Wilpinjong Coal Mine Modification Terrestrial Flora Assessment 1 740000 760000 780000 " Durridgere WARRUMBUNGLE " State Conservation Area G Cainbil Uarbry OL Durridgere DE GO N LDEN SHIRE COUNCIL 9 State Conservation HIG HWA Area Y " HIG ER Ross Crossing HW IV AY R Durridgere 9 BLACK HILL Conservation Turill COCKABUTTA Area " HILL 9 d Durridgere a o R Conservation UPPER HUNTER 6440000 Area 6440000 SHIRE9 COUNCIL n la I U U R K Comiala Flat " LBURN 9 GOU R I " V The Hulks E R Goulburn River Ulan State Coal Mines Goulburn River National Park Conservation Cope Area Goulburn River State Forest Creek ong National Park pinj Cope Ulan Wili State Forest Wilpinjong W Y ! A ad A Coal Mine k L o W Moolarben e L R IL re E RA ROUND TOP R G C A N Coal Mines r W O MOUNTAIN LG lla LEES A GU 9 o PINCH N pe U ng G Co OW lan ilipinjo Creek W 9 OLL -W W H o SA Y M ll N ND oo ar D 6420000 SA Cope State Forest DEXTER la R Y Goulburn River National Park 6420000 rb k o HO MOUNTAIN e e a LL n e d OW R 9 r RIVE GULGONG C BURN RAILWAY GOUL MAGAZINE GU LG W HILL 9 ON ol " 9 C Wollar G la o " r MOUNT FLIRTATION Henr o C y y r Meads Crossing MISERY HILL La e G a e o 9 W w l " k b A s R Y Cooks Gap o B o m a A E n Mt Penny d G u W W A R D d C H a ri o Coal Project G v o I l e R l a H R r MOUNT E S BETEALWEEN IV PENNY P Home Rule 9 MOUNTAIN R " Munghorn Gap 9 G W 9 n ay a N Cr l B Nature Reserve a O Bylong H e U r L " G MAGPIE ek ig Y A a State Forest E HILL B R n Bylong C y E 9 ad GARRISON HILL e L o l R r l T e a B 9 V S e a A " k C R r g A i n g o BOX HILL I L Cooyal a yl W S 9 n B A Y 9 MOUNT GALAMBINE ve TAL TAL ri ar D ll MOUNTAIN 9 LOWES o 9 PEAK W R o a BALD Ston d y HILL 6400000 Botobola 9 6400000 r G C OAKY MOUNTAIN R RED HILL n O o C r 9 s ree eek 9 k MUDGEE W w " Ro PORCUPINE a ad MOUNTAIN L Budgee Budgee BIG MOUNTAIN E RED HILL BOX HILL 9 C 9 OAKYS 9 E 9 9 MOUNT ROUND STORMY 9 HILL 9 MOUNT BALD y BUCKAROO 9 r MOUNT HILL n 9 e BARA DAVIDS H 9 MOUNTAIN 9 MID-WESTERN 9 BOMBIRA HILL Lue FLIRTATION REGIONAL COUNCIL HILL Bowdens MOUNT MUDGEE L 9 a JIMMY MISERY COLLIERS MOUNT w Silver Project s JIMMY 9 HILL FROME W on A s HAWKINS MOUNTAIN 9 9 LL Road ER PINNACLE 9 GROWEE AW Wollemi National Park Avisford A C 9 MOUNTAIN 9 OZ MOUNTAIN NG ree 9 CANNIBAL Nature k HILL GWABEGAR LION 9 Reserve MOUNT MOUNTAIN 9 9 ay KNOWLES W C U " 9 D ELEPHANT GOAT MOUNTAIN G Lue 9R E MOUNTAIN I G R V Avisford A O I ER N LW Nature G A L Y ue