Ecology
[edit]
The rugged and varied sandstone landscape is home to a distinctive mixture of wildlife, which has been thoroughly mapped and described by the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management.[excessive citations] There are habitats similar to the Kimberley across the border in the Northern Territory, including the valleys of the Victoria and Daly Rivers but these have been less carefully studied.
Flora[edit]
Boab tree near Kununurra
Much of the Kimberley is chiefly covered in open savanna woodland dominated by low bloodwood and boab trees (Adansonia gregorii) with Darwin stringybark and Darwin woollybutt eucalyptus in the wetter areas. The red sandy soil of the Dampier Peninsula in the south is known for its characteristic pindan wooded grassland, while in the more fertile areas like the Ord Valley, the trees are found in grasslands of Chrysopogon, Aristida, Dichanthium and Xerochloa (rice grass) in the wetter valleys. The banks of the Ord, Fitzroy River and other rivers are home to a greater variety of vegetation, while in sheltered gorges of the high rainfall north, there are patches of tropical dry broadleaf forest, called monsoon forests, deciduous vine forest or vine thicket in Australia, (often mistakenly which is called "dry rainforest"), which were unknown to science until 1965, and are one of the most floristically rich parts of Australia outside the Wet Tropics and southwestern Western Australia. There are also areas of mangrove in river estuaries where the coast is flatter[clarification needed].
Flora regions[edit]
In 1979, John Stanley Beard identified four phytogeographic districts within the Northern Botanical Province:
Gardner District (Ga) in the north (and further divided into the West Gardner (WGa), Central Gardner (CGa) and East Gardner (EGa))
Fitzgerald District (Fi) in the centre
Dampier (Da) and Hall (Ha) Districts in the south
Fauna[edit]
Bowerbird nest
Desert mouse
Animals found here include the huge saltwater crocodile, its smaller cousin the freshwater crocodile and a rich variety of birds such as the channel-billed cuckoo, Pacific koel, purple-crowned fairywren and the bowerbird. The sandstone gorges of north Kimberley are an important refuge for a particularly rich collection of endemic species including some that have disappeared from the flatter areas, including the purple-crowned fairywren, the endangered Gouldian finch and a large number of amphibians: flat-headed frog, cave-dwelling frog, magnificent tree frog, Derby toadlet, small toadlet, fat toadlet, the unconfirmed marbled toadlet, Mjoberg's toadlet, mole toadlet and stonemason's toadlet. Mammals that have declined especially in the flatlands include the bilby, northern quoll, pale field rat, golden-backed tree rat, and golden bandicoot. Megabats such as the black flying foxes and little red flying foxes are common and perform important pollination and seed dispersal work for many species of native trees and shrubs.
A species of endemic gecko, Gehyra kimberleyi, is named after the Kimberley region.
The gorges of central Kimberley are known for their fossils and for their large colonies of bats, including Windjana, Tunnel Creek, and Geikie Gorges. Lake Argyle and other wetlands of the Ord and the Kimberley are important habitats while there are important populations of shorebirds in the Ord estuary, Eighty-mile Beach and Roebuck Bay, which has been described as "one of the most important stop-over areas for shorebirds in Australia and globally". Finally, there are several rocky islands off the north coast that are home to seabirds and turtles.
Threats and preservation[edit]
Purnululu National Park
Little of the Kimberley has been subject to wholesale clearance other than particularly fertile parts of the Ord Valley (and areas of Kimberley-type habitat across the Daly River basin in the Northern Territory) but the pastureland in the southern areas has been affected by 100 years of livestock grazing and other threats including introduced weeds (such as cocklebur, parkinsonia, bellyache bush and castor oil plant), feral cats and changes to traditional Aboriginal fire regimes (the way grassland is burnt and allowed to renew). However, the remote sandstone areas to the north have valuable original habitats in good condition providing shelter for much wildlife.
Purnululu National Park – sandstone domes of the Bungle Bungle Range
The largest protected areas are the Prince Regent National Park and the Drysdale River National Park along with Gregory National Park and Keep River National Park across the Northern Territory, which preserves similar habitats. (Keep River's nearest town is Kununurra in the Kimberley.)
The Kimberley is a popular tourist destination, with areas such as the Bungle Bungle Range, the Gibb River Road, Lake Argyle, El Questro Station, Mornington Sanctuary, Horizontal Falls and Cape Leveque. The Gibb River Road and the road into the Bungle Bungles can at times be accessed in a two-wheel drive car, although one can access many additional areas in a four-wheel drive vehicle.
Other parks in the region include Geikie Gorge National Park, Mirima National Park, Mitchell River National Park, Point Coulomb National Park, Purnululu National Park, Tunnel Creek National Park, Windjana Gorge National Park and Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater National Park. In 2012 the Western Australian government announced the creation of the 7,062-square-kilometre (2,727 sq mi) Camden Sound Marine Park with a further three to come.[needs update]
Visitors to the area should be aware that the area can be subject to controlled burns at any time of year. In September 2011, a fire burned five people, two severely, who had been competing in the Kimberley Ultramarathon, an endurance cross-country footrace.
Save the Kimberley campaign[edit]
Pindan country near James Price Point
The local Kimberley community led a campaign to stop a proposal to industrialise the Kimberley coast at James Price Point 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Broome. Woodside Energy, with Joint Venture partners BHP, Chevron, Shell and BP along with the Barnett Liberal-National Coalition Government of Australia, sought to build the largest gas refineries in the world on the Kimberley coast. The local community rejected the proposal given the enormous damage it would've caused.
Organisations and groups that were involved in the campaign included the Goolarabooloo people, the Broome Community No Gas Campaign, Environs Kimberley, Save the Kimberley, The Wilderness Society, Sea Shepherd and Australian Conservation Foundation.
The campaign received support from public figures such as John Butler, Clare Bowditch, Missy Higgins, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly and former leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown.
On 5 October 2012, a concert was held at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia, to raise awareness of the campaign; the protest event attracted approximately 6,000 people.
On 24 February 2013, an estimated 20,000 people gathered for a charity concert in Fremantle, Western Australia to raise awareness and funds to help protect the Kimberley, with performances from Ball Park Music, Missy Higgins, and John Butler.
Woodside and its Joint Venture partners withdrew from the project on 12 April 2013.
