TERRITORY IRON Pty LTD
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TERRITORY IRON Pty LTD. Environmental Survey of Landscape, Flora and Fauna of Proposed Iron Mining within the Frances Creek Project Area Prepared for Territory Iron Pty. Ltd. By Tom Reilly, Dr Bill Low and Dennis Matthews LOW ECOLOGICAL SERVICES PO Box 3130, Alice Springs, N.T. 0871 Phone: (08) 89 555 222 Fax: (08) 89 555 722 Email: [email protected] November 2005 Environmental Survey of Landscape, Flora and Fauna of the Proposed Frances Creek Project Area, Nov 2005 CONTENTS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................5 1.1 Existing Environment................................................................................................5 1.2 Conservation Considerations for the Frances Creek project area.........................6 2 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................9 2.1 Project Description....................................................................................................9 2.2 History of site..........................................................................................................10 3 SCOPE.............................................................................................................................12 4 SITE LOCATION AND REGIONAL DESCRIPTION.........................................................13 4.1 Location...................................................................................................................13 4.2 Climate.....................................................................................................................14 4.3 Biological Records..................................................................................................15 4.4 Land System Description........................................................................................15 4.5 Geology and Geomorphology................................................................................16 4.6 Soils.........................................................................................................................17 4.7 Fauna........................................................................................................................17 4.8 Vegetation................................................................................................................17 5 SURVEY METHODS........................................................................................................19 6 RESULTS.........................................................................................................................24 6.1 Natural Landscape..................................................................................................24 6.2 Frances Creek Land Unit Descriptions..................................................................24 6.3 Survey Site Vegetation Descriptions.....................................................................27 6.4 Fauna of the Frances Creek project area...............................................................32 7 CONSERVATION VALUE OF THE FRANCES CREEK PROJECT AREA (REGIONAL CONTEXT)...............................................................................................................................40 7.1 Habitat......................................................................................................................40 7.2 Flora.........................................................................................................................40 7.3 Fauna........................................................................................................................41 7.4 Landscape of the Frances Creek Project Area......................................................49 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................50 9 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................51 10 MAP 1A – SOUTHERN SECTION OF PROJECT AREA..............................................54 11 MAP 1B – NORTHERN SECTION OF PROJECT AREA.............................................55 2 Low Ecological Services November 2005 Environmental Survey of Landscape, Flora and Fauna of the Proposed Frances Creek Project Area, Nov 2005 12 PLATES........................................................................................................................56 12.1 Survey Sites.............................................................................................................56 12.2 Fauna........................................................................................................................63 12.3 Flora.........................................................................................................................69 12.4 Frances Creek village area.....................................................................................70 13 APPENDICES...............................................................................................................72 13.1 Trap capture results from the fauna survey within the Frances Creek project area, November 2005..........................................................................................................72 13.2 All mammals, reptiles and amphibians identified from the Frances Creek survey, November 2005...................................................................................................................74 13.3 Bird species recorded within the Frances Creek project area during November survey 2005.........................................................................................................................79 13.4 Vegetation Records from the Frances Creek flora survey, and other nearby flora surveys................................................................................................................................83 13.5 Mammals presently or potentially inhabiting the Frances Creek project area....94 13.6 Reptiles presently or potentially inhabiting the Frances Creek project area....100 13.7 Frogs, fish and inverts presently or potentially inhabiting the Frances Creek project area.......................................................................................................................108 13.8 Birds presently or potentially inhabiting the Frances Creek project area.........111 Figures Figure 2.1: Frances Creek project area and potential locations of iron ore mining areas...........11 Figure 4.1: Location Map showing Frances Creek project area.................................................13 Figure 4.2: Total rainfall (mm) and average maximum temperatures for the previous 12 months. ..........................................................................................................................................15 Figure 4.3: Land System Map of the Frances Creek project area..............................................16 Figure 4.4: Vegetation Map for the Frances Creek project area................................................18 Figure 6.1: Elliott trap success rate (%) for the three night trapping period at Frances Creek in November 2005................................................................................................................33 Tables Table 5.1: Brief description of survey sites with the type of assessment method used at each site....................................................................................................................................20 Table 5.2: Bat detector locations during the Frances Creek survey...........................................21 Table 5.3: Water sample locations and descriptions.................................................................22 Low Ecological Services 3 November 2005 Environmental Survey of Landscape, Flora and Fauna of the Proposed Frances Creek Project Area, Nov 2005 Table 5.4: Soil sample locations and descriptions.....................................................................22 Table 6.1: Lands Units of the Frances Creek project area, representative Survey Site and Plate Reference Number............................................................................................................24 Table 6.2: Results recorded by the ANABAT system during the Frances Creek survey............36 Table 7.1: Species of Conservation Significance that occur or could possibly occur within the Frances Creek project area...............................................................................................45 Table 7.2: Fauna species of Northern Territory conservation significance that have been recorded in surveys in the Pine Creek region between 1985 and 2006.............................48 Frontispiece: Iron Mining halted in 1974 due to cyclone Tracy and flooding and ore transport problems mitigated against reopening the mine at that time. Reappraisal and expansion of the mine is currently underway. Helene Pit 5 shows the revegetation after 30 years of natural rehabilitation. 4 Low Ecological Services November 2005 Environmental Survey of Landscape, Flora and Fauna of the Proposed Frances Creek Project Area, Nov 2005 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An environmental survey of the Frances Creek Project area was conducted between November 11th and 15th, 2005 at the start of the wet season. The aim of the study was to conduct a baseline flora and fauna survey of the project area and collect