https://doi.org/10.24199/j.mmv.1979.40.03 31 July 1979 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE BALLARAT AREA, VICTORIA By A. M. Gilmore*, W. B. Emison* and J. R. Wheeler! 'Fisheries and Wildlife Division, Ministry for Conservation, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, 123 Brown Street, Heidelberg, Victoria 3084. 172 James Street, Belmont, Victoria 3216. Abstract The proportion of Crown Land remaining in the Ballarat area is small relative to most other areas surveyed by the Land Conservation Council of Victoria. The major habitats, grassland woodland and swamp, which originally occurred across the basalt plains have been mainly cleared and drained for pasture and crop production, but some isolated tall open- forests and open-forests survive along the Great Dividing Range in the north of the survey area. Mainly because of alterations to habitat at least 4 species of mammals and 8 species ot birds are now threatened with extinction or are extinct in the survey area. Details of abundance, geographic distribution, habitat, breeding (birds only) and infor- mation sources are given for 42 species of mammals, 249 species of birds and 26 species of reptiles. Less detailed information is also presented for 12 species of amphibians. Only one public reserve in the area has been established for wildlife (mainly aquatic birds) As yet no terrestrial area has been set aside as either a national park or a wildlife reserve although a woodland in the southeast of the area has been proposed as a flora reserve under the management of the National Parks Service. Introduction and reptile recorded in the survey area is given in annotated lists at the end of this paper. The Ballarat area (Fig. 1) is located mainly within the basalt plains of western Victoria Survey Area and has the Great Dividing Range as its PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY northern boundary. Because the basalt plains The survey area includes a small part of the were cleared for pasture and crops early dur- Great Divide where elevations range from ing European settlement only small amounts 300 m to nearly 1000 m. To the east of Bal- of native forest and woodland now remain. larat is a plateau whose average height is more Consequently, there have been few systematic than 450 m. Most of the area is composed of surveys of the native fauna of many of these weathered Pleistocene basalt with some "stony small blocks. However, good historical infor- rises" and alluvial material. These flat or mation is available for the birds because dur- undulating plains slope gradually to below ing the past 30 years one of the authors (J. R. 150 m in the south. Scattered throughout are Wheeler) has recorded his observations and small volcanic cones, e.g. Mt Buninyong south- those of other naturalists living in the survey east of Ballarat and Mt Hollowback west of area- Creswick, that rise to 300 m above the sur- Officers of the Fisheries and Wildlife Divi- rounding plain. sion, Ministry for Conservation, conducted In the eastern part of the survey area there field surveys of the vertebrate animals in the are Ordovician sedimentary rocks, which were Ballarat area during 1976 and early 1977. The the scene of intense gold mining more than data collected are being used by the Land 100 years ago. These areas (Enfield and Conservation Council in its assessment of Creswick Blocks) have now regained much of land-use in Victoria. their vegetative cover, and together with Cam- The results presented here were derived brian mudstones in the north (Ararat and mainly from our field surveys and the past Ben Major-Trawalla Blocks) compose much observations of J. R. Wheeler, as well as all of the land remaining in public ownership. other previously documented records. Detailed All these areas are low hills covered with information on each species of mammal, bird skeletal soils and rise to 450 m. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, 51 No. 40, July 1979. —* 52 A. M. GILMORE, W. B. EMISON and J. R. WHEELER 144 L Elmhurst ' Ararat /JHXJ ^J"> , ,-__ ,--0>-- ^fampbe.itown Block ,e,]r^-,Mt.Cole / (Mj S e n (E) l , Vi f?ii .' Itti8 e '1 Major f «.. \ / Ararat .• % \ Clunes ngor / Mt \Dayle:sford ** Beckworth J Langi Raglarf/^ / Ghiran Creswick^-'.Newly'n / Bl Ock Ben Major- '^Beaufort Learmonth_ g2':»Trawalla (F) Trawalla^r-" : Block '— - Creswick 37°30' Block (D) (C)\ ^ Willaura (B) BALLARAT™*^'" Basalt Plains Enfield . m hesdal *L (H) Block ,i^^^ ^ ^ N, Streatham Skipton*/*" I Linton ) •Wickliff. /X- Cartanballa'c nfield" ICape Clea Deteel P*- f——J \ • Rokewood \ U. P Inverleigh / Block %r„y -j • / r- , J/ I— J v/* Inverleigh Figure 1 —Place names and major blocks of Crown Land in the Ballarat area. The highest areas, Mt Langi Ghiran and decreases to 625 mm in the south. Monthly the Mt Cole massif, are Ordovician granitic variations in temperature and rainfall are intrusions which reach nearly 1000 m at Mt shown in Table 1. Winter and spring are the Buangor; there is some quaternary aeolian seasons of maximum rainfall. Frosts occur sand in the south (Inverleigh Block) during winter and snow falls occasionally on CLIMATE the highest ground. Rainfall and temperature gradients over the VERTEBRATE HABITATS survey area rise and fall respectively with in- Four plant formations serve the general crease in elevation. Annual rainfall on the purpose of denoting habitat and are used in Mt Cole massif is greater than 1000 mm, but discussing the distribution of the vertebrate 49 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE BALLARAT AREA, VICTORIA 53 TABLE 1 Climatic data from two representative stations (Bureau of Meteorology 1975) Ballarat (Wendouree) Elevation 459-6 m J F M A M J J A S O N D Ann. Rainfall (mm) 38 50 47 56 69 64 69 77 73 68 56 52 719 Max. Temp. (°C) 25-5 24-6 21-9 18-0 13-3 11 3 9-9 11-4 13-6 16 6 19-3 22 1 173 Min. Temp. (°C) 11. 11-8 102 8-0 5-8 4-3 3-2 3-8 4-8 6-7 7-9 9-8 7-3 re (P<dsi Office) Elevation 159-7 m J F M A M J J A S O N D Ann. Rainfall (mm) 35 41 38 53 55 51 58 68 59 60 56 46 620 Max. Temp. (°C) 26- 26-1 23-7 19-9 15 5 13-4 12 2 13 4 15 5 18 2 21-0 23-5 19-1 Min. Temp. (°C) 11-6 12-3 10 9 8-9 70 5-2 4-4 50 5-9 7-2 8-5 10 3 81 animals in the Ballarat area. Three of these fauna came from the collections of the National formations (tall open-forest, open-forest and Museum of Victoria, field records of the woodland) occur mainly on Crown Land and Mammal Survey Group of the Field Naturalists the fourth formation (grassland) occurs on Club of Victoria, specimens and files held by private land. For each plant formation, the the Fisheries and Wildlife Division, interviews dominant plant species, the characteristic with local naturalists, records of the Australian features and the blocks in which each occurs Bird-banding Scheme, published literature are shown in Table 2. The terminology for and nest records of the Royal Australasian the plant formations follows that of Specht Ornithologists Union (RAOU ) . Information (1970) and Specht et al. (1974). sources are listed alphabetically and each is The aquatic habitat includes streams, preceded by an identifying letter and number swamps, lakes, farm ponds and associated in the section on Sources of Information. In vegetation which occurs in, or borders on, the the annotated lists, information sources for open water areas. The swamps and lakes, some species are listed only by these letters which are found mainly in the basalt plains, and numbers (those in bold face denote provide a valuable wildlife environment and sources containing breeding information). for 25 of these (Fig. 2) we have a large Mammals were trapped in wire cage traps amount of data on the animals utilizing them. (36 x 20 x 16 cm) baited with a mixture of peanut butter, honey and rolled oats. The Methods traps, to a maximum of 100, were set at each Information was collected on all vertebrate locality for two nights and the intervening animals except fishes. The field work was day. They were checked on the first morning, conducted by the Wildlife Survey Team of the and captured animals were either retained or Fisheries and Wildlife Division between Feb- marked and released. All traps were reset and ruary 1976 and January 1977 (a total of 50 checked again on the second morning, after days was spent in the field by between 1-4 which they were removed from the site and people). Records were kept of the vegetation set in another locality later in the day. Obser- formation at each site where observations vations of mammals during daylight hours were made and form the basis for comments and by spotlight at night were routinely re- on habitats. Data, particularly on birds, were corded as were characteristic scats, burrows collected on a long-term basis by J. R. and diggings. Scientific nomenclature for the Wheeler who has records for the last 30 years native mammals follows Ride (1970). and who has, for many years, written a nature Field work on the birds consisted of visit- column for the newspaper, Ballarat Courier. ing the different habitats in each block of Additional information on the vertebrate Crown Land (including aquatic areas) and 54 A. M.