Coolgardie is an
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal A ...
bioregion
A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use the ...
consisting of an area of low hills and plains of infertile sandy soil in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
.
It has an area of .
It includes much of the
Great Western Woodlands.
Location and description
This is a transition zone between the
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
of
Australia's south-west coast and the country's dry interior. The poor soil makes it unsuitable for agriculture but
Coolgardie has been a gold and nickel mining area.
It is bounded on the north by the arid
Murchison bioregion
The Murchison is an interim Australian bioregion located within the Mid West of Western Australia. The bioregion is loosely related to the catchment area of the Murchison River and has an area of . Traditionally the region is known as ''Th ...
, characterised by open
Mulga woodlands and steppe. The low shrublands of the arid
Nullarbor Plain
The Nullarbor Plain ( ; Latin: feminine of , 'no', and , 'tree') is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its ...
lie to the east.
The
Mallee bioregion
Mallee, also known as Roe Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia. Located between the Esperance Plains, Avon Wheatbelt and Coolgardie bioregions, it has a low, gently undulating topography, a semi-arid ...
adjoins Coolgardie on the south. The
Avon Wheatbelt
The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.
Geography
The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low reli ...
bioregion is to the west.
The Coolgardie bioregion, together with the coastal
Hampton bioregion
Hampton is an interim Australian bioregion located in southeastern coastal Western Australia, with a small portion (4%) extending into adjacent South Australia. It has an area of . The Hampton bioregion is part of the Coolgardie woodlands eco ...
to the southeast, constitute the
Coolgardie woodlands ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...
defined by the
World Wildlife Fund
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...
.
Flora and fauna
The low hills are home to woodland of
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
species of
eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...
while the sand plains are covered in
scrubland. The areas nearer the west coast have more
protea
''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos'').
Etymology
The genus ''Protea'' was named in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus, possibly after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form a ...
flowers while the drier inland is home to
acacia trees and
kwongan heathland
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
.
Wildlife of the Coolgardie bioregion includes birds such as
malleefowl
The malleefowl (''Leipoa ocellata'') is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It is notable for the large nesting mounds constructed by the males and lack of parental ca ...
,
laughing kookaburra
The laughing kookaburra (''Dacelo novaeguineae'') is a bird in the kingfisher subfamily Halcyoninae. It is a large robust kingfisher with a whitish head and a brown eye-stripe. The upperparts are mostly dark brown but there is a mottled light ...
and
barking owl
The barking owl (''Ninox connivens''), also known as the winking owl, is a nocturnal bird species native to mainland Australia and parts of New Guinea and the Moluccas. They are a medium-sized brown owl and have a characteristic voice with ca ...
, and reptiles such as the
thorny devil and
desert death adder
The desert death adder (''Acanthophis pyrrhus'') is a species of snake native to Australia and is one of the most venomous land snakes in the world. The desert death adder is under threat due to the destruction of habitat.
Description
Desert d ...
. Mammals include the
echidna
Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae . The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only living mammals that lay eggs and the ...
,
brushtail possum,
red kangaroo
The red kangaroo (''Osphranter rufus'') is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as sou ...
,
eastern wallaroo
The common wallaroo (''Osphranter robustus''), also known as the euro, hill wallaroo, or simply wallaroo, is a species of macropod. The word ''euro'' is particularly applied to one subspecies (''O. r. erubescens'').WE Poole and JC Merchant (198 ...
and
bilby.
Vegetation
References
Further reading
* Thackway, R and I D Cresswell (1995) ''An interim biogeographic regionalisation for Australia : a framework for setting priorities in the National Reserves System Cooperative Program'' Version 4.0 Canberra : Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Reserve Systems Unit, 1995.
{{coord missing, Western Australia
Biogeography of Western Australia
Coolgardie woodlands
IBRA regions
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub in Australia
Southwest Australia