FFaauunnaa HHaabbiittaattss aanndd FFaauunnaa AAsssseemmbbllaaggee ooff tthhee BBrroocckkmmaann SSyynncclliinnee 44 PPrroojjeecctt,, nneeaarr TToomm PPrriiccee Seasonal Survey Report Prepared for Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd Prepared by JJuulllyy 22000055 Biota Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd Fauna Habitats and Fauna Assemblage of the Brockman Syncline 4 Project, near Tom Price © Biota Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd 2005 ABN 49 092 687 119 14 View Street North Perth Western Australia 6006 Ph: (08) 9328 1900 Fax: (08) 9328 6138 Project No.: 311 Prepared by: R. Teale A. Sanders Z. Hamilton Checked by: R. Teale M. Maier This document has been prepared to the requirements of the client identified on the cover page and no representation is made to any third party. It may be cited for the purposes of scientific research or other fair use, but it may not be reproduced or distributed to any third party by any physical or electronic means without the express permission of the client for whom it was prepared or Biota Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd. Cube:Current:311 (Brockman 4 Seasonal):Doc:RJT_Brockman_seasonal_V5.doc 2 Fauna Habitats and Fauna Assemblage of the Brockman Syncline 4 Project, near Tom Price Fauna Habitats and Fauna Assemblage of the Brockman Syncline 4 Project, near Tom Price Contents 1.0 Summary 6 1.1 Background and Methods 6 1.2 Habitats 6 1.3 Fauna 7 1.4 Management Recommendations 8 2.0 Introduction 9 2.1 Background to the BS4 Project and Location of the Project Area 9 2.2 Scope and Objectives of this Study 9 2.3 Purpose of this Report 13 2.4 Existing Environment 13 3.0 Methodology 20 3.1 Database Searches 20 3.2 Survey Timing and Weather 20 3.3 Survey Team 20 3.4 Systematic Censusing 21 3.5 Non-systematic Sampling 26 3.6 Vegetation Types and Fauna Habitat Classification at each Survey Site 26 3.7 Survey Limitations 30 4.0 Vertebrate Fauna Inventory Survey 32 4.1 Background 32 4.2 Birds 32 4.3 Mammals 42 4.4 Bats 45 4.5 Herpetofauna 45 5.0 Invertebrate Fauna Inventory Survey 50 5.1 Overview 50 5.2 Short Range Endemics 50 5.3 Other Invertebrate Taxa 56 6.0 Conservation Significance 58 6.1 Approach to the Assessment 58 6.2 Overall Fauna Conservation Value 58 6.3 Threatened Fauna Statutory Framework 59 6.4 Threatened Vertebrate Species from the BS4 Project Area 60 6.5 Other Vertebrate Species of Interest 66 6.6 Short Range Endemic Invertebrates 66 7.0 Fauna Habitat Conservation Significance Assessment 69 7.1 Approach of the Assessment 69 7.2 Assessment Based on Land Systems 69 7.3 Assessment Based on Vegetation Types 70 Cube:Current:311 (Brockman 4 Seasonal):Doc:RJT_Brockman_seasonal_V5.doc 3 Fauna Habitats and Fauna Assemblage of the Brockman Syncline 4 Project, near Tom Price 8.0 Generic Impacts of the BS4 Project and Recommendations for Management 72 8.1 Probable Impacts 72 8.2 Management Recommendations 75 9.0 Acknowledgements 76 10.0 References 77 Appendix 1 Annotated Lists of Vertebrates Recorded from the BS4 Project Area Appendix 2 Records from WA Museum Database Search Appendix 3 Records from CALM Rare Fauna Database Search Appendix 4 Fauna Sites and Vegetation Mapping of the BS4 Project Area Tables Table 2.1: Land Systems in the BS4 Project area (data from Payne et al. 1988, Department of Agriculture 2002). 15 Table 2.2: Distribution of Land Systems within the BS4 Project area and wider Pilbara region (data from Payne et al. 1988 and Department of Agriculture 2002). 16 Table 3.1: Daily Meteorological Observations for Tom Price 18/10/04 – 28/10/04 and 12/04/05 – 21/04/05 (data provided by the Western Australian Bureau of Meteorology). 22 Table 3.2: Climatological summary for Tom Price (data provided by the Western Australian Bureau of Meteorology). 22 Table 3.3: Trapping grid location and trap effort. 23 Table 3.4: Systematic avifauna censuses undertaken at each of the fauna sites. 28 Table 3.5: Habitat types and corresponding vegetation descriptions for each of the fauna trapping grids in the BS4 Project area. 29 Table 3.6: Association between Land Systems mapped within the BS4 Project area and vegetation types identified for this study (see Biota 2005a). Vegetation types in which we established fauna trapping grids are denoted with an “*”. 30 Table 4.1: Number of species recorded during the surveys of the BS4 Project area. 32 Table 4.2: Avifauna records from the BS4 Project area (numbers from both survey phases combined). 34 Table 4.3: Mammal records from the BS4 Project area (bold italics represent numbers from the second survey phase). 44 Table 4.4: Herpetofauna records from the BS4 Project area (bold italics represent numbers from the second survey phase). 48 Table 5.1: Locations of millipede taxa recorded along the White Quartz Road. 50 Table 5.2: Current collections of taxa with affinities to Rhagada sp. “Mt Brockman”. 53 Cube:Current:311 (Brockman 4 Seasonal):Doc:RJT_Brockman_seasonal_V5.doc 4 Fauna Habitats and Fauna Assemblage of the Brockman Syncline 4 Project, near Tom Price Table 5.3: Land snail taxa (excluding Rhagada sp. “Mt Brockman”) and the sites from which they were collected during the survey of the BS4 Project area. 56 Table 5.4: Locations of mygalomorph taxa recorded within the BS4 Project area. 56 Table 5.5: Spider families recorded from each of the survey sites in the BS4 Project area. 57 Table 6.1: Species of Federal or State level conservation significance recorded from or potentially occurring within the BS4 Project area. “*” denotes species recorded by the current study. 60 Table 6.2: Locations in the BS4 Project area from which Ardeotis australis was recorded. 65 Table 6.3: Locations in the BS4 Project area from which Burhinus grallarius was recorded. 65 Table 8.1: Indicative area of each fauna habitat type that would be cleared for the proposed development*. 73 Figures Figure 2.1: Location of the BS4 Project area, in relation to other existing or proposed mining areas near Tom Price. 10 Figure 2.2: Preliminary layout of the BS4 Project. 11 Figure 2.3: Proposed layout of the BS4 rail spur through the transport corridor to Brockman 2, and existing alignment of the White Quartz Road. 12 Figure 2.4: Land Systems of the region including the main BS4 Project area. 17 Figure 2.5: Land Systems of the region including the White Quartz Road access corridor. 18 Figure 3.1: Fauna sampling sites within the main BS4 Project area (NB. BRO936 = snail sampling site only). 25 Figure 5.1: Locations from which camaenid land snails were collected during the first survey of the BS4 Project area. 54 Figure 5.2: Locations from which taxa with affinities to Rhagada sp. “Mt Brockman” have been recorded. 55 Plates Plate 3.1: Site BRO13E. 31 Plate 3.2: Site BRO04. 31 Plate 3.3: Site BRO46A. 31 Plate 3.4: Site BRO10. 31 Plate 3.5: Site BRO30. 31 Plate 3.6: Site BRO32. 31 Plate 3.7: Site BRO36. 31 Plate 3.8: Site BRO37. 31 Plate 4.1: Diplodactylus savagei from the BS4 Project area. 47 Plate 5.1: Rhagada sp. “Mt Brockman” from BS4 Project area. 52 Plate 5.2: Rhagada sp. “Mt Brockman” from the White Quartz Road. 52 Plate 5.3: Rhagada sp. “Mt Brockman” from the BS4 Project area (top row) and Rhagada sp. affin. “Mt Brockman” from near Pannawonica (bottom row). 52 Cube:Current:311 (Brockman 4 Seasonal):Doc:RJT_Brockman_seasonal_V5.doc 5 Fauna Habitats and Fauna Assemblage of the Brockman Syncline 4 Project, near Tom Price 1.0 Summary 1.1 Background and Methods Hamersley Iron Pty Limited is proposing to develop the Brockman Syncline 4 Iron Ore Project (BS4 Project). The BS4 Project is situated approximately 25 km south-west of the existing Brockman 2 Mine, and approximately 58 km west of Tom Price in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Biota Environmental Sciences conducted fauna surveys of the BS4 Project area over two phases, the first between 18/10/2004 and 30/10/2004 and the second between 12/04/2005 and 21/04/2005. The central component of the systematic survey consisted of 15 trapping grids, each located within a defined habitat, which were run during both phases of the survey. In selecting survey sites, equal weight was given to accessibility of sites such that pitfall traps, Elliott traps and funnel traps could be regularly checked. Twelve of the trapping grids consisted of one row of 10 pitfall traps. The pits (alternating 20 litre buckets and PVC tubes) were spaced at approximately 9 m intervals and connected with a single 100 m length of 30 cm tall flywire fence. Two grids were comprised of 25 Elliott traps, spaced at approximately 10 m intervals, and one trapping grid consisted of 12 funnel traps spaced at approximately 10 m intervals and connected with a single length of 30 cm tall flywire fence. The avifauna of the Project area was sampled using a combination of techniques, which included: • unbounded area searches conducted at most of the systematic sampling grids; • unbounded area searches conducted at opportunistic locations containing habitats or microhabitats likely to support previously unrecorded species; and • opportunistic observation of birds recorded while driving around the BS4 Project area. During phase II, a corridor along the White Quartz Road was included in the BS4 Project area to allow for proposed upgrade of access to BS4. This area was sampled using unbounded area searches for birds, and Elliott trapping for mammals and reptiles at two sites.