Ecological Communities - A Biological Survey of the Western Gawler Ranges

• Summary
• The Field Survey
• Vegetation Mapping
• Vegetation Map

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Summary

The Field Survey

Gawler Ranges grevillea Grevillea paralellinervis a species confined to the western Gawler Ranges

Red mallee, Eucalyptus oleosa Tree mallee, Gawler Ranges National Park

Mallee broombush Melaleuca uncinata Open shrubland, Gawler Ranges National Park

In October 1985 the third major regional survey of the Biological Survey of South Australia was conducted across the whole Gawler Ranges area. At that time, standard vegetation mapping was not a part of the biological survey process as it is today.

The purchase of Paney Station in 1999 and subsequent creation of the Gawler Ranges National Park provided an opportunity to produce a standard vegetation map for this area and the surrounding pastoral lands.

Vegetation Mapping

Vegetation quadrat data was consolidated from the following five separate surveys:

• 1985 as part of a biological survey of the whole Gawler Ranges.
• 1987, 88, 92 and 93 as part of the pastoral assessment process.
• 1998 as part of the NE Eyre Peninsula agricultural lands vegetation mapping survey.
• 1999 as part of the NW Eyre Peninsula agricultural lands vegetation mapping survey.
• 2000 as part of a specific vegetation survey to fill in gaps in existing coverage.

Data for the perennial plants only, from these combined quadrats was analysed using PATN exploratory analysis to produce 20 groups based on floristic composition.

Using a combination of Landsat TM imagery and aerial photography, a vegetation map was produced at a scale of 1:100,000.

This mapping joined the 1:50,000 agricultural area vegetation mapping and where possible, given the scale change, it has been edge-matched.

Twenty vegetation types were mapped and, where possible, were equated to the groups generated by the floristic analysis.

Hudspith, T. J., Robinson, A. C. and Lang, P. J. (2001). A Vegetation Map of the Western Gawler Ranges, South Australia. Biodiversity Survey and Monitoring Section, National Parks and Wildlife SA, Department for Environment and Heritage. South Australia.

Vegetation Map

A full report of 'A Vegetation Map Of The Western Gawler Ranges, South Australia' (3.9Mb PDF) is available as an Acrobat PDF file.