THE ISLANDSOF THE NORTH.WESTKIMBERLEY WesternAustralia EDITEDBY A. A. Burbidse and N. L. McKenzie 1978 DEPARTMENTOF FISHERIESAND WILDLIFE PERTH,WESTERN AUSTRALIA Wildl. Res.Bull. lyest. Aust. 1978No, 7, l-47. r CONTENTS Page PART I INTRODUCTION A. A. Burbidge,N. L. McKenzie Background.... 5 History 5 Narrative 5 Land Status .... l1 References .... l1 PART II EN\aIRONMENT A. A. Burbidge, N. G. Marchant, N. L. McKenzie, p. G. WiIson Climate 12 Geology 12 Description Sir GrahamMoore Islands .... 13 OsbornIslands 14 Low Rocks 15 Bonaparte Archipelago l5 Kingfisher Islands zl BrowseIsland .... 2l Adele Island 2l References .... 21 PART III MAMMALS N. L. McKenzie,A. A. Burbidge,A. Chapman,W. K. youngson Introduction.... 22 AnnotatedSpecies List 22 Discussion .... 25 Acknowledgements.... 27 References .... 28 PART MIRDS L. A. Smith, R. E. Johnstone,J. Dell Inlroduction.... List of Species 30 Discussion .... 40 Acknowledgements.... 41 Relerences,... 4l PART V AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES L. A. Smith, R. E. Johnstone Introduction.... List of Species Alura.... 42 Reptilia.... A' Discussion .... 44 References..... 45 PART VI CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. A. Burbidge, N. L. McKenzie Conclusions.... 46 Recommendations.... 46 a TABLES Page PART I INTRODUCTION 1. Islandsvisited in 1971 .. 10 2. Islandsvisited in 1972 .... 10 3. Islandsvisited in 1973 . .. 10 PART II ENVIRONMENT L Weatherdata t2 2. Island stratigraPhY 13 PART III MAMMALS L Zyzomys woodwardibteeding data 2. Native Mammalsrecorded on the islands 26 PART IV BIRDS 1. Co-ordinatesand areasof islandsand datesvisited 29 FIGURES PART I INTRODUCTION l. The north-westKimberley, showing island groups ' 6 2. AugustusGroup to PrinceFrederick Harbour 7 3. MontagueSound area ... 8 4. AdmiraltYGulf area 9 PART II ENVIRONMENT 1. Sir GrahamMoore Island 13 2. Sir GrahamMoore Island,mesa t4 1'l 3. Borda Island 4. Middle OsbornIsland .... 14 5. SouthWest OsbornIsland, mesa 15 6. SouthWest OsbornIsland 15 7. WollastonIsland .. 16 8. South Maret Island 16 9. BiggeIsland, sandstone.. L7 10. Bigge Island, woodland 17 I l. BoongareeIsland 17 12. CoronationIsland 17 13. Coronation Island, open woodland . 18 14. CoronationIsland, water course 18 15. Uwin's Island 18 16. AugustusIsland, Warton Sandstone... 19 17. AugustusIsland, vine thicket .... 19 18. AugustusIsland, woodland 19 19. AugustusIsland, freshwater pool 19 20. Darcy Island 20 21. Byam Martin Island 20 22. Byam Martin Island,tall open-shrubland 20 23. BrowseIsland .... 21 Wildl. Res.Bull. Ilest. Aust. No.'1, 1 47 ABSTRACT THE ISLANDS OF THE NORTH-WEST KIMBERLEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA A. A. Burbidgeand N. L. McKenzie,Edilors (W.A. WildlifeRes_earch Centre, P.O. Box 51,Wanneroo, W.A.6065). Street,Perth, Coniainr pupirs by A. Cl.rapman,J.-Dell, R. E. Johnstgl" 9n{ L. A Smith,(W.A.,Museun,.Frarcis W.a. OOO6I;'N-ci Marchairtund p. c. Wilson(W.A. Hgibarlum,ceorge Stre€l, South-Perth, W.A.6151): A. A' Surbidge,N. L. McKenziealtd W. K. Youngson(W.A. Wildlife Research Centre, P.O. Box 51,Wanneroo, W.A. 6065). Biolosical survevwork was undertakenon the islandsof tbe north-westKimberley coastin the dry seasonsof 1971,19'72and 1973. Twenty- seven-islandswdre visited,raoging in area from t to 17 950 ha The island\are geologicall).lopographtcllly. climarically and_reG:tationrlly typicdl ol the adjacentKinlberley marnland. Rock-t5pe' ;"iiri"li"a.ro"is, ,oicanii, and l;e;ir;.: ltieclimareis tropiccland 'ub-humidsilh a di.tincl Jryseacon. A \ariel) olfofesl. woodland. i6iritti.a, gi..ttiira and nrangrovecon,munities were recordedas well as seni-deciduousvine thickets. Annotated lists of mammals,birds, reptiles and amphibiansare pres€nted. The 22 naiive mammal, 146 bird, 42 leptile and 3 amphibian mainiand today. Someislands harbour p_opLllationsof specieswhich are little soeciesrecorded are all extant on the rioith-west Kimberley (,P(radorcat il,"*" i" iti-K,lnt";i.v .ii"iirA includinglhe Scaly-rrriedPos\un tWvt da ,quamicauda!at-L;ltle Rocl^Wallaby cott,innd\. \ arat:i (perntlalc burbidsei), LesserWniii--no.el Hor.e"hoe Bat tHippo'ilctor verot^r. Mangrove.K ingfi\heJ-tHak)on chlorh rctdida\. i;;;;i;;t'il7;;;p;ri;,Viyriii iirrt6in"d Red-cro\\nedPigeon tPrilnopu' r?sina ewinsii). righl or rhe l7 endemic norrh-wesrKim- berlev reotilei odcur on the islands. Feral mammals wererecorded orr only two islands. Recon'lmendationsare made for reservationof many of the islandsas nature reserves' PART I INTRODUCTION by A. A. BURBIDGEI and N. L. McKENZIEI BACKGROUND Tlle first European to visit the Kimberley coastline was Abel Tasman in 1644 but his 1og has been lost and it Some of the most important Nature Reservesin Western is not known where he landed. The region was first Australia are islands. Some offshore islands harbour explored by the French scientific expedition under animals which arc rarc or cxtinct on the Australian Nicholas Baudin in 1803. Although many of the mainland, some have unique assemblages,species or islands were named at this time little scientific work sub-sDecie.of animal' and pllnt:, and almostall have was reported (Cornell 1974). beenunaffected bv the eroiic arrimalsirtlroduced into The next explorer was P. P. King who explorad and man. Australia by Errropean mapped the Kimberley coast between 1820 and 1822 Until recentlvwork on WesterrlAustralian islands r'ras (King 1827). He namedmany of the islandsalthough larselvre'lriited lo lhose5oulh of Port HedlandlWillir his landirrgswere chiefly on the mairland.in searcho[ 1957;-Mair 1961; Ride et al. 1962; Storr 1960, 1964; water. King was accompanied by the botanist Allan Butler 19701Main and Yadav l97l; Burbidge l97l; Cunningham who collected many previously unknown Burbidse and Prince 1972) atd almost nothing was speciesof plants.duringthesc erplorations. Duringour known-of the biota of islands fulther north. For this sur\e\s we redi)covered a Baobab tree carved with "Mer- reason the DeDartment of Fisheriesand Wildlife decided the name of King's vessel, His Majesty's Cutter to examinethe islands in the Kimberley Division and maid" and the date 1820 at Careening Bay, in the work commencedon this project in 1971. Prince Regent River Nature Reserve (Burbidge 1975). Most islands in the Kimberley occur off the western The next maritime explorers in the region were Wickham coast between Cape Lev€que and Cape Londonderry and Stokes in H.M.S. Beagle (Stokes 1846) who ex- (Figs 1, 2, 3, 4). In this region there are two archi- amined the coastline as far north as Port George IV. pelagosand severalstnaller groups. From north to At this time George Grey explored the mainland in the iouth thereare: Corernor lslands,Sir Craham Moore vicinity of the Glenelg River (Grey 1841). lslands,Eclipse Islands, Osborn Islands,lnstitut Islands, ln recent times the islands have beenvisited by geologists, BonaparteArchipelago. Monlgomery Irlan9s. King- suryeyors and military personnel. During World War fisher'l'landsand BuicaneerArchipelago. Thi: report II a radio base was constructed on Sir Graham Moore is concernedwith the Kingft<herIslands. the islandsol- Island by the United States Air Force. the Bonaparte Archipelago and most of the groups There are no previous publications on the flora or further north. vertebrate fauna of islands of the north-west Kimberley covered by this report. HISTORY Almost all the continental islands we visited showed NARRATIVE signsof occupationby aborigines.On some islands. Bradshaw ln 1971,1972 and 1973,the WesternAustralian Depart- e.E.Borda, wollaston and Bigge.ue saw both (F. paintingi(see Crau ford 1968)and ment of Fisheriesand Wildlife & W.) organisedand aid Wandiinacave 'ur\eysoI rhe coastali'lands of the Marel,East Vontalivet, Sir Graham larselvfinanced on otherse.s. Sourh Kimberley'(Fig.l.). The westernAus- Fenelon and Augustus there are stolle anange- noihl*etr Moore, Museum (W.A.M.) and the WesternAustralian ments, tralian Herbarium (W.A.H.) contributedstaff to take part in the field work, and curatedand identifiedthe material l Weslern Austialian Wildlife Reserrch Cenlrc, P.O Box 51, Wanneroo, w A collected. 6065, 126000' 128000 IlvotA 0cEA ".:::".,, ',1.r::.*; -.'uo ' "4'\ "- '9 a-, 2, "'" - on s?'; "- ,C""';]$5**'e,:r*; 6D \ OO' MAP1 1244O0' Fiture l-The north-westKimberley, showing island groups. o = = . ,.'-S: \b\\ \a - ;{N-; tJ s- 6 2'an*- un "o, y o \\ rr I t'l ,,t ' !''"' :t t ",\<c{' 4e4(E ? \:. / ' %EJr< a\l z, Figure2-AuSustus Group to Prince FrederickHarbour. 7 125"15 I DtAfl OCEAIT o \ IJ Lqc$\et$so !- Jr<l In tr-v ^ LI EASTMoilrAuvEr L "o*nto*t" 4l.il8x,o,,u,,,.-o ,waBilt. cl a' s ,z-) l PSUDHOEIS. g\? MASETi bw., -Y rs MOIVIAAUE squflD ?A ?)i'Xu''['l' .l <iorEnsL 'o.l ,.ft 15 14o30', t. wou-Aslotl -$/Y lBEnTHtEE t 6 0 n'l 0 s0utvD q MAP3 TREDEEICK "_v? 12so tta8R0u8 l25o 15' Fiture3-Montague Sound area. 8 25" 30', 126000' 13045', MtAN OCEAII HTCLAl. o 140 00' tow B0c(s MONTESOUIEUIS. .r.' \ BAUDINLt 9 ( lFEr/Etol'lL -S.v 'sq ' /<) \J .*"f\ n , \4) . wHtTEL D BoBoA!,.\> 14'15' cop"volti,u ADMINATfY tl 0au t4c 15', MIDDIE ,4 l' oSBoRNts) lRB0nr -.?{'D)J ", 33Ht[il'i]r,\-\J $ I 4ceatta;/tu n / lcr .,,/ STETP ?-s tltAo t.(/,/ s WAIBE|\IDEAI 125445'. 1260'15' Figure4-Admiralty Gulf area. 9 Surveywork commencedin Augustand September1971. TABLE 2 At,that, time the Royal AustralianSurvey Corps was u-nce_rtarrnga mapping programme in the norih_\ est ISLANDS YISITED IN 1972 Krmberte) and Major C. Sargent,the commandins omcer_ol Lhe 5 Field Surrey Squadron, generousli Approx. agreed provide Dates to accommodation,food and-helicooter Island Area Visited transportation to islands as and when it fitted in;ith (ha) (1e72) hrs programme. A. A. Burbidgc{ F. & W.) wasartached to rhe Squadron ar Kalumburu from 3l Jul) to l4 Augustus 17950 12-19May {.geys1.-N. L. McKenzie (f. & W.) ana r. ,{. Smiitr Heywood (w.A.M.) 760 2423 May uere basedat Kunmunya from l5 August Darcy 4 800 2A-23 May to 4 Scptemberand D. J. Kirchener{W.A.M.) ;;; Coronation 3 830 basedal 23 26 May MitchellPlareau from 4 to l0 Seprembert971.