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Lands of the Mitchell-Normanby Area, Queensland

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Lands of the Mitchell-Normanby Area, Queensland IMPORTANT NOTICE © Copyright Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (‘CSIRO’) Australia. All rights are reserved and no part of this publication covered by copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means except with the written permission of CSIRO Division of Land and Water. The data, results and analyses contained in this publication are based on a number of technical, circumstantial or otherwise specified assumptions and parameters. The user must make its own assessment of the suitability for its use of the information or material contained in or generated from the publication. To the extend permitted by law, CSIRO excludes all liability to any person or organisation for expenses, losses, liability and costs arising directly or indirectly from using this publication (in whole or in part) and any information or material contained in it. The publication must not be used as a means of endorsement without the prior written consent of CSIRO. NOTE This report and accompanying maps are scanned and some detail may be illegible or lost. Before acting on this information, readers are strongly advised to ensure that numerals, percentages and details are correct. This digital document is provided as information by the Department of Natural Resources and Water under agreement with CSIRO Division of Land and Water and remains their property. All enquiries regarding the content of this document should be referred to CSIRO Division of Land and Water. The Department of Natural Resources and Water nor its officers or staff accepts any responsibility for any loss or damage that may result in any inaccuracy or omission in the information contained herein. LANDS OF THE MITCHELL-NORMANBY AREA, QUEENSLAND LAND RESEARCH SERIES NO. 26 COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANIZATION, AUSTRALIA 1970 REGISTERED IN AUSTRALIA FOR TRANSMISSION BY POST AS A PERIODICAL Lands of the Mitchell-Normanby Area, Queensland Comprising papers by R. W. Galloway, R. H Gunn, and R. Story Land Research Series No. 26 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia 1970 Printed by CSIRO, Melbourne CONTENTS PAGE PART I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE MITCHELL- NORMANBY AREA. By R. W. Galloway 7 I. INTRODUCTION .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 7 (a) Location and Extent . .. 7 (b) Settlement and Communications . .. .. 7 (c) Origin and Method of Survey .. .. 7 II. GENERAL DESCRIPTION 9 (a) Relief 9 (b) Drainage 10 (c) Geology . .. .. .. 11 (d) Climate 12 (e) Soils 12 (/) Vegetation 13 (g) Land Use 13 III. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 13 IV. REFERENCES . .. .. 14 PART II. LAND SYSTEMS OF THE MITCHELL-NORMANBY AREA. By R. W. Galloway, R. H. Gunn, and R. Story 15 I. INTRODUCTION 15 II. MAJOR TYPES OF COUNTRY .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 16 (a) Mountains and Hills on Resistant Volcanics, Granite, and Sediments . 16 (b) Undulating Country on Fairly Resistant Metamorphics, Granite, Sediments, and Basalt 16 (c) Plains and Lowlands on Unresistant Shale, Claystone, and Siltstone .. 16 (d) Plains and Lowlands on Weathered Terrestrial Sediments . 16 (e) Plains on Older Alluvium and Colluvium . .. 17 (/) Plains on Younger Alluvium . .. .. 17 (?) Plains and Dunes on Young Coastal Sediments 17 III. CORRELATION WITH THE LEICHHARDT-GILBERT SURVEY .. .. .. .. 17 PART III. CLIMATE OF THE MITCHELL-NORMANBY AREA. By R. H. Gunn .. 39 I. INTRODUCTION 39 II. GENERAL CLIMATIC CHARACTERISTICS . .. .. .. 39 (a) Rainfall 39 (6) Temperature . .. .. .. .. .. 40 (c) Humidity and Evaporation . .. .. .. 42 III. REFERENCES . .. .. .. .. .. 44 4 CONTENTS PAGE PART IV. GEOLOGY A.ND RELIEF OF THE MITCHELL-NORMANBY AREA. By R. W. Galloway 45 I. INTRODUCTION 45 II. GEOLOGY AND LAND FORMS . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 45 (a) Volcanics and Granite . 45 (b) Quartz Sandstone - 45 (c) Greywacke and Other Sediments . .. 47 (d) Metamorphics and Granite . 47 (e) Basalt 48 (/) Shale, Claystone, and Siltstone 48 (g) Weathered Terrestrial Deposits 49 (h) Older Alluvium and Colluvium 49 (0 Younger Alluvium . .. 50 (;) Coastal Sediments . 51 III. HISTORY OF THE LANDSCAPE .. .. .. 52 IV. REFERENCES . .. .. .. 52 PART V. SOILS OF THE MITCHELL-NORMANBY AREA. By R. H. Gimn . 53 I. INTRODUCTION .. .. 53 II. SOIL GROUPS AND FAMILIES .. .. 56 III. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SOILS ., 56 (a) Alluvial Soils 56 (6) Cracking Clay Soils 57 (c) Texture-contrast Soils . .. 60 (d) Massive Earths . 62 (e) Structured Red and Brown Soils .. .. 65 (/) Uniform Medium- to Fine-textured Soils . .. .. 66 (g) Uniform Sandy Soils 67 (A) Shallow Rocky Soils 68 (0 Miscellaneous Land . .. .. .. 68 IV. OCCURRENCE AND ORIGIN OF THE SOILS .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 69 (a) Distribution of the Soils 69 (6) Past Climatic and Geomorphic Influences 69 (c) Lithology and Relief 73 (rf) Salinity 73 (e) Climate 74 V. REFERENCES .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 74 CONTENTS 5 PAGE PART VI. VEGETATION OF THE MITCHELL-NORMANBY AREA. By R. Story .. 75 I. INTRODUCTION . .. .. .. .. 75 (a) General Remarks 75 (b) Main Features of the Vegetation and Environment . .. 75 (c) Diagnostic Plants and Features of the Vegetation Types . 76 II. DESCRIPTION OF THE VEGETATION TYPES .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 78 (a) Box Woodland 78 (b) Ironbark Woodland 79 (c) Gum Woodland 79 (d) Bloodwood-Stringybark Woodland 79 (e) Mixed Eucalypt Woodland 80 (/) Paperbark Woodland 81 (g) Paperbark Scrub 82 (h) Lancewood Scrub . 83 (0 Evergreen Mixed Scrub .. .. .. .. 83 (j) Deciduous Scrub 84 {k) Mangrove Scrub 84 (/) Grassland and Savannah . .. .. 85 (m) Salt-marsh Vegetation . 86 (n) Vine Forest 86 (o) Gallery Forest 87 III. REFERENCES 88 PART VII. LAND USE IN THE MITCHELL-NORMANBY AREA. By R. H. Gunn and R. Story 89 I. INTRODUCTION 89 II. CLIMATE AND LAND USE 89 ill. PASTURES AND LAND USE 89 (a) Pasture Land 1—Bloodwood-Stringybark Country 90 (6) Pasture Land 2—Lowland Paperbark Country . 90 (c) Pasture Land 3—Rugged Ironbark Country 90 (d) Pasture Land 4—Alluvial Plain Country 91 (e) Pasture Land 5—Central Ironbark Country 91 (/) Pasture Land 6—Shale and Basalt Country 91 (g) Non-range Country 92 6 CONTENTS PAGE IV. SOILS AND LAND USE .. 92 (a) Alluvial Soils 92 (b) Cracking Clay Soils 93 (c) Texture-contrast Soils 94 id) Massive Earths . 94 (e) Structured Red and Brown Soils 94 (/) Uniform Medium- and Fine-textured Soils . 95 (g) Uniform Sandy Soils 95 (A) Shallow Rocky Soils 95 (0 Miscellaneous Land . .. .. .. 95 V. THE CATTLE INDUSTRY .. 95 (a) Present Situation 95 (b) Possible Improvements .. .. .. 96 VI. AGRICULTURE .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 97 (a) Present Situation 97 (6) Possible Developments .. .. 97 VII. FORESTRY 98 (a) Present Situation 98 (b) Possible Developments 98 VIII. REFERENCES 98 APPENDIX I. PLANTS MENTIONED IN TEXT AND AVAILABLE COMMON NAMES 99 MAPS Land Systems Generalized Geology, Soils, Vegetation, and Pasture Lands PART I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE MITCHELL-NORMANBY AREA By R. W. GALLOWAY* I. INTRODUCTION (a) Location and Extent The Mitchell-Normanby area described in this report occupies the lower two-thirds of the Cape York Peninsula and lies between the fourteenth and eighteenth parallels of south latitude. It covers approximately 55,000 sq miles and has maximum length and width of about 290 miles. The western boundary is defined by the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria and the eastern boundary is partly the Pacific coast and partly the Great Divide between west-flowing and east-flowing drainage. On the south-west it abuts on the Leichhardt-Gilbert area surveyed in 1953-54 (Perry et al. 1964). (b) Settlement and Communications The total population is about 8000, of whom rather more than half are of European origin and the remainder mainly Aborigines, with some Thursday Islanders. The largest settlement is Cooktown (population 430) on the east coast. Mareeba (population c. 5000) lies just outside the south-east corner of the area and Coen (population 75) lies just to the north. There are, in addition, a number of small mining settlements, mostly in a state of decay, such as Chillagoe and Almaden. The rest of the population is on cattle stations or on Aboriginal reserves on the east and west coasts. The main occupation is raising beef cattle on very large cattle stations and in the south and east there is a little mining for a variety of metals. Tourism is a minor but increasing resource. The main access route is the Mulligan Highway from Mareeba to Cooktown and the Peninsular Developmental road which runs north-west from a point on the Mulligan Highway 30 miles from Cooktown (Fig. 1). From Mareeba another road runs west and north-west almost to the Gulf coast, then swings south to Normanton. From these main routes a sparse network of medium- to poor-quality roads and station tracks penetrates the rest of the area. Most of the roads are impassable at times in the wet season. A useful introductory account of the history of settlement and the major types of country in the Cape York Peninsula is given by Whitehouse (1947). (c) Origin and Method of Survey Since this sparsely settled area is little known in detail, rational development will require greater knowledge of the nature of the country. To meet part of this need, the present survey was undertaken at the request of the Queensland Department of * Division of Land Research, CSIRO, Canberra. 8 R. W. GALLOWAY Primary Industries as a rapid reconnaissance designed to give an outline of the major types of land. As a first step, characteristic photo patterns were identified and delineated on air photographs at scales of 1 : 50,000 and 1 : 85,000. Then the nature of the land forms, soils, and vegetation of these patterns was investigated during three weeks' field work carried out by helicopter in August 1966. Finally, Fig. 1.—Main roads, settlements, and sampling sites. the photo interpretation and field work were collated and 20 types of country or land systems were identified. These are described in Part II and their distribution is shown on the accompanying map at a scale of 1 : 1,000,000. During the survey, observations were made at 220 localities (Fig.
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