Cunninghamia Date of Publication: 17 December 2014 A journal of plant ecology for eastern Australia ISSN 0727- 9620 (print) • ISSN 2200 - 405X (Online) Acacia pendula (Weeping Myall) in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales: early explorers’ journals, database records and habitat assessments raise doubts over naturally occurring populations Stephen Bell1,3 & Colin Driscoll2 1 Eastcoast Flora Survey, PO Box 216 Kotara Fair NSW 2289,
[email protected] 2 Hunter Eco, PO Box 1047 Toronto NSW 2283,
[email protected] 3 School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308 Abstract: Acacia pendula, Weeping Myall, (family Fabaceae) is the most legislatively protected plant species in the New South Wales Hunter Valley. Under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 it is listed as an Endangered Population (in the Hunter Valley) and as a component of two Endangered Ecological Communities (one in the Hunter, one elsewhere in NSW); it is also listed as a Critically Endangered Ecological Community (in the Hunter Valley) on the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and listed as threatened in three other eastern Australian States. To ascertain the likely original distribution of stands of Acacia pendula in the Hunter Valley, this paper examines the writings of early Australian explorers, herbarium and database records, and the species habitat attributes across NSW. None of the journals examined, including those of botanist/explorer Allan Cunningham (who originally collected Acacia pendula from the Lachlan River in 1817), Thomas Mitchell or Ludwig Leichhardt, make note of the species for the Hunter Valley. Several explorers do, however, record Acacia pendula regularly (>100 times) across other parts of NSW, Queensland, and South Australia.