Recovery of Grassy Woodlands

Documents for download from this site are in PDF format and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. The reader is free and can be downloaded from the Adobe website.

Temperate grassy woodlands are amongst the most threatened plant communities in Australia with only 10 - 15% of the original 65 million ha remaining in Eastern Australia. The grassy woodland ecosystems of the Northern and Yorke Region have been highly fragmented by clearance and modified through grazing, cropping and weed invasion. Following European settlement, South Australia's grassy woodlands were rapidly modified by grazing and cleared for farming because of their open nature and fertile soils. Woodland habitats are now threatened by the disruption of natural disturbance regimes (eg fire) and associated regeneration.

In some areas, over-abundance of Box Mistletoe (150Kb PDF) is a major indicator of declining woodland health, often associated with a lack of natural regeneration and understorey vegetation. Box Mistletoe is particularly evident in the Clare Valley (300Kb PDF), although it also occurs in parts of the southern Flinders Ranges, including; Telowie Gorge Conservation Park (1Mb PDF) and Mount Remarkable National Park, along the edges of the Tothill Range, and in some woodlands on Yorke Peninsula.

The majority of remnant grassy woodlands now occur on private lands.

The Northern and Yorke Region is responsible for the management of the Spring Gully Conservation Park, a 400 ha park set aside to conserve the westernmost population of the Red Stringybark Eucalyptus macrorhyncha. The park is the only reserve in South Australia to contain this species. The park is also known for its diverse grassy understorey and abundance of native orchids.

Peppermint Box Eucalyptus odorata grassy woodland is considered to be the most threatened woodland community in the Northern and Yorke Region. It is rated as poorly conserved in South Australia, and has been nominated as a Threatened Ecological Community under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Small areas of Peppermint Box grassy woodland are conserved in Mount Remarkable National Park and Mount Brown Conservation Park (1Mb PDF).

There are several threatened grassy woodland species that are the focus of targeted conservation programs, including:

• Jumping-jack Wattle Acacia enterocarpa
• Common Brushtail Possum Trichosurus vulpecula (200Kb PDF)
• Lowly Greenhood Pterostylis despectans
• Halbury Greenhood Pterostylis sp. 'Halbury'
• White-beauty Spider-orchid Caladenia argocalla (100Kb PDF)
• Declining woodland birds (200Kb PDF)