Protecting the Natural Treasures of the Australian Alps Alpine National Park Avon Wilderness Park Bimberi Nature Reserve Brindabella National Park Kosciuszko National Park Mount Buffalo National Park Namadgi National Park Scabby Range Nature Reserve Snowy River National Park Peter Coyne May 2001 A report to the Natural Heritage Working Group of the Australian Alps Liaison Committee Protecting the Natural Treasures of the Australian Alps About the author Peter Coyne has had an interest in the Australian Alps from early childhood and a long history of interest and involvement in protected area issues. This began with preparation of a management plan as an honours project when such a document was a real novelty. He had the rare opportunity to create national parks, working with the Land Conservation Council in Victoria where he defined the boundaries and gave names to proposed new national parks, including Croajingalong, Snowy River and Tingaringy, which the Government adopted. Dr Coyne joined the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service in its early days and spent four years establishing the Service’s office and operations on Norfolk Island, and introducing the concept of environmental management to the island’s community and government (which led to the creation of the Norfolk Island National Park). He then headed the ANPWS Park Planning Section, personally preparing the management plan for Kakadu National Park and having responsibility for preparation of other plans ranging from central Australia (Uluru–Kata Tjuta) to marine national nature reserves in the Coral and Timor Seas, and park plans for Australia’s remote Indian Ocean Territories. During this time he also developed the legislation and lease to enable transfer of Uluru to its traditional Aboriginal owners and its lease back to the Director of National Parks and Wildlife for continuing use as a national park. The legislation and lease arrangements became models used elsewhere to enable Aboriginal ownership of existing national parks. Dr Coyne subsequently led the Marine Conservation Unit and the National Reserve System team in ANPWS/ANCA, working on development of strategic national systems of terrestrial and marine protected areas to protect representative samples of Australia’s biodiversity. In this capacity he had active roles in two conferences in the USA. In 1997 he was thrilled to be invited to become a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas. In late 1999 he was delighted to be invited to undertake this project ii Protecting the Natural Treasures of the Australian Alps Preface Stretching from Canberra through the Brindabella Range in the ACT, the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales and along the Great Dividing Range through Victoria, the Australian Alps national parks form a 1.6 million hectare chain of protected areas crossing State and Territory borders across the roof of southern Australia. To look after these protected areas the national park agencies in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT and the Commonwealth agreed in 1986 to a system of cooperative management under an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU was signed to protect the landscape, water catchments, plants, animals and cultural heritage of the Australian Alps as a whole ecosystem while providing opportunities for public appreciation and sustainable enjoyment of the resource. The area encompassed by this report is generally the Australian Alps “national parks” (listed on the title page), which are considerably broader than the alpine zone. The Australian Alps national parks include parts of three biogeographic regions: Australian Alps, South Eastern Highlands and South East Corner. Some of the discussion, where appropriate, extends beyond the boundaries of the Australian Alps national parks, for example to include significant species from Baw Baw National Park. This report is the outcome of a six-month project funded under the MOU by the Natural Heritage Working Group under the Australian Alps Liaison Committee. Only five months was available from commencement of this project until submission of the draft final report. Time was inadequate to fully cover the source materials collected during the project, or to collect a comprehensive suite of source material. Readers should recognise this significant constraint and not assume that this report is more complete than it actually is. Many features which deserve inclusion are missing, either because they were not identified during the project or even because they remain unknown. A second stage of the project in early 2001 developed the report and database as an interactive electronic version for distribution on CD. This report deals with some contentious issues on which opinion in the community is divided. As a scientific report the focus is on the scientific evidence and viewpoint, but it is important that other views are recognised. As a concise and accurate means of portraying those other views, some direct quotations have been used. That they are inconsistent with the main thrust of the report is a consequence of the nature of the report. No disrespect is intended towards those who have been quoted. Their viewpoints are the result of long experience and are respected, even if not endorsed. We hope this project will stimulate further study of the natural features of the Australian Alps and their threats, and that the information presented here will quickly be augmented by new contributions. Information may be sent via the Australian Alps national parks website: http://www.australianalps.environment.gov.au/ iii Protecting the Natural Treasures of the Australian Alps Acknowledgments Many people enthusiastically helped with this project. Their assistance was vital and greatly appreciated. At the risk of accidentally leaving out some names, which I would deeply regret, I wish to acknowledge the valuable contributions of the following people who helped in the initial stages of the project and/or commented on the draft database: Wil Allen, John Briggs, Linda Broome, David Burton, Jo Caldwell, Jeff Carboon, Stephen Clark, Cate Gillies, Roger Good, Ken Green, Rob Hunt, Jo Ingarfield, Stuart Johnston, Russell Knutson, Mark Lintermans, Monica McDonald, Keith Mc Dougall, Evan McDowell, Kate Millar, Robert Moore, Catherine Pickering, Rod Pietsch, Richard Sharp, David Shorthouse, Andrew Thornhill, Neville Walsh, Nigel Watt, Dave Woods, Genevieve Wright, and Geoff Young. The following participated in the two-day workshop, and put a lot of effort into checking the database and allocating priorities to the natural features and their threats: Mike Braysher, John Briggs, Linda Broome, Geoff Brown, Jo Caldwell, Jeff Carboon, Graeme Enders, Roger Good, Richard Groves, Dean Heinze, Jim Hone, Geoff Hope, Katrina Jensz, Stuart Johnston, Dylan Kendall, Bruce Leaver, Mark Lintermans, Virginia Logan, Alison Marrion, Keith McDougal, Evan McDowell, Rick McRae, Kate Millar, Robert Moore, Patrick Piggott, Neville Rosengren, Sarah Sharp, Steve Smith, Andy Spate, Ben Wallace, Michelle Walter, Genevieve Wright, and Geoff Young. I greatly appreciate the willing provision by many people of draft or pre-publication papers and other documents, an important contribution to this report. I also wish to record my appreciation of: ♦ workshop facilitator David Bailey for his considerable effort in preparing for, running and documenting the workshop; ♦ Keith McDougall for scoring 260 flora taxa following the workshop; ♦ AALC staff Brett McNamara and Cath Renwick for their support and encouragement; ♦ Environment Australia Library staff for a big effort compiling a bibliography on natural heritage of the Australian Alps national parks; ♦ the AALC, through its Natural Heritage Working Group, for providing the concept and the funding; ♦ Environment Australia for providing workspace and facilities; ♦ project managers Trish Macdonald, Ben Wallace and Rob Hunt and the project Steering Committee (Trish, Ben, Rob, Amanda Carey, Graeme Enders, Roger Good, Evan McDowell, Kate Millar and Robert Moore). iv Protecting the Natural Treasures of the Australian Alps Contents About the author........................................................................................................ ii Preface....................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments.................................................................................................... iv Contents..................................................................................................................... v Summary ................................................................................................................... ix 1 Importance of conservation ................................................................... 1 1.1 The significance of the Australian Alps ........................................................................................1 International Significance............................................................................................................1 National Significance ..................................................................................................................5 1.2 Why conserve rare species? ...........................................................................................................6 1.3 International obligations ..............................................................................................................10