Coolgardie woodlands
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The Coolgardie woodlands is an ecoregion in southern Western Australia. The predominant vegetation is woodlands and
mallee scrub Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands is one of 32 Major Vegetation Groups defined by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy. Description " Mallee" refers to the growth habit of a group of (mainly) eucalypt species that g ...
. The ecoregion is a transitional zone between the Mediterranean-climate forests, woodlands, and shrublands of
Southwest Australia Southwest Australia is a biogeographic region in Western Australia. It includes the Mediterranean-climate area of southwestern Australia, which is home to a diverse and distinctive flora and fauna. The region is also known as the Southwest Aus ...
and the deserts and dry scrublands of the Australian interior.


Location and description

The Coolgardie woodlands is part of the Mediterranean-climate
Southwest Australia Southwest Australia is a biogeographic region in Western Australia. It includes the Mediterranean-climate area of southwestern Australia, which is home to a diverse and distinctive flora and fauna. The region is also known as the Southwest Aus ...
biogeographic region, whose forests, woodlands, and shrublands are globally noteworthy for their diversity of plant species. The Coolgardie woodlands ecoregion consists of two IBRA regionsCoolgardie and the smaller Hampton bioregion. Coolgardie bioregion is bounded on the south and west by Mediterranean-climate ecoregions, the coastal Esperance mallee ecoregion to the south, and the
Southwest Australia savanna The Southwest Australia savanna is an ecoregion in Western Australia. Location and description The southwest Australia savanna is at the transition between the Mediterranean climate ecoregions of Australia's southwest corner and the deserts ...
ecoregion to the west. The Coolgardie woodlands' northern boundary is the
Mulga-eucalypt line The mulga-eucalypt line, or mulga-eucalypt boundary line, marks a boundary between '' Acacia''-dominated shrublands and ''Eucalyptus''-dominated open woodlands across Western Australia. It runs across the north of the Eastern Goldfields, and throu ...
, which marks the boundary between eucalypt-dominated woodlands of Southwest Australia and the drier Mulga (Acacia-dominated) woodlands of Australia's interior. The Western Australian mulga shrublands, Great Victoria Desert, and Nullarbor Plains xeric shrublands ecoregions lie to the north. The Hampton region is coastal, lying southeast of the Coolgardie region on the shore of the Great Australian Bight. It is bounded on the north and east by the Nullarbor Plains xeric shrublands.


Flora

The ecoregion is home to several plant communities, including eucalyptus woodlands and shrublands of mallee and acacia. Woodlands of
Salmon gum ''Eucalyptus salmonophloia'', commonly known as salmon gum, wurak or weerluk or woonert or marrlinja. is a species of small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth bark, narrow lance-shaped to curved adult leave ...
(''Eucalyptus salmonophloia'') and
gimlet Gimlet may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Gimlet Media, a media network that produces journalistic and narrative podcasts * Gimlet (Transformers), a fictional character * Captain Lorrington "Gimlet" King, a fictional character in a s ...
(''Eucalyptus salubris'') are common in central Coolgardie, generally on rolling plains and river valleys on red loam soils over red clay. Salmon gums reach 15-20 meters in height, and gimlet a height of 8 to 12 meters. The woodlands are open and irregular, and with an understory of low shrubs (including ''
Maireana sedifolia ''Maireana sedifolia'', also known as the bluebush or pearl bluebrush is a compact shrub endemic to Australia, and found in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. It is used in pasture and as a ...
'' and ''
Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and w ...
'' spp.), herbs, and grasses.Elith, Jane and Sjaan Bidwell (2004). ''Identification and Assessment of Nationally Threatened Woodlands. Description of Ecological Communities: Arid Eucalypt Woodlands''. Report to the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2004.


Protected areas

A 2017 assessment found that 16,323 km², or 12%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas – 14,731 km² (11%) of the Coolgardie region and 1,592 km² (15%) of the Hampton region. Supplemental material 2 table S1b. Protected areas in the Coolgardie region include Karroun Hill Nature Reserve in the northwestern corner,
Mount Manning Nature Reserve Mount Manning Range Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in the Goldfields-Esperance, Goldfields region of Western Australia north of Southern Cross, Western Australia, Southern Cross in the area known as the Northern Yilgarn, in the Coolgardie bio ...
, Jilbadji Nature Reserve, and
Goldfields Woodlands National Park Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to: Places * Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States * Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States * Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United State ...
in western Coolgardie, and
Dundas Nature Reserve Dundas may refer to: Places Australia * Dundas, New South Wales * Dundas, Queensland, a locality in the Somerset Region * Dundas, Tasmania * Dundas, Western Australia * Fort Dundas, a settlement in the Northern Territory 1824–1828 * Shire of ...
which extends south into the Esperance mallee. Ngadju Indigenous Protected Area was established in 2020, and protects extensive areas of woodland. The coastal Nuytsland Nature Reserve covers the western portion of the Hampton region, and
Nullarbor National Park Nullarbor National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the locality of Nullarbor about west of the state capital of Adelaide and about west of Ceduna. Founded in 1979, its extent was reduced in 201 ...
covers its easternmost portion.


See also

*
Great Western Woodlands The Great Western Woodlands is located in the southwest of Australia. The woodlands cover almost , a region larger in size than England and Wales. The boundary of the Great Western Woodlands runs from the Nullarbor Plain in the east to the West ...


External links

*


References

{{Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA), state=collapsed Ecoregions of Western Australia Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub in Australia Southwest Australia