Flora and Fauna Assessment of the Pilot Pond and Turkeys ... · Flora and Fauna Assessment: Pilot Pond & Turkeys Nest Botanica Consulting 7 3.2 Flora of Conservation Significance

Flora and Fauna Assessment of the

Pilot Pond and Turkeys Nest Development

Lake Wells Project

For Australian Potash Limited

Tenement: E38/2742

December 2016

Prepared by: Botanica Consulting PO Box 2027 Boulder WA 6432 90930024

Disclaimer This document and its contents are to be treated as confidential and are published in accordance with and subject to an agreement between Botanica Consulting (BC) and the client for whom it has been prepared and is restricted to those issues that have been raised by the client in its engagement of BC. Neither this document nor its contents may be referred to or quoted in any manner (report or other document) nor reproduced in part or whole by electronic, mechanical or chemical means, including photocopying, recording or any information storage system, without the express written approval of the client and/or BC. This document and its contents have been prepared utilising the standard of care and skill ordinarily exercised by Environmental Scientists in the preparation of such documents. All material presented in this document is published in good faith and is believed to be accurate at the time of writing. Any person or organisation who relies on or uses the document and its contents for purposes or reasons other than those agreed by BC and the client without primarily obtaining the prior written consent of BC, does so entirely at their own risk. BC denies all liability in tort, contract or otherwise for any loss, damage or injury of any kind whatsoever (whether in negligence or otherwise) that may be endured as a consequence of relying on this document and its contents for any purpose other than that agreed with the client.

Quality Assurance An internal quality review process has been implemented to each project task undertaken by BC. Each document and its contents is carefully reviewed by core members of the Consultancy team and signed off at Director Level prior to issue to the client. Draft documents are submitted to the client for comment and acceptance prior to final production.

Prepared by: Lauren Pick

Environmental Consultant Botanica Consulting

Reviewed by: Andrea Williams Director Botanica Consulting Approved by: Jim Williams Director

Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Project Description 1

2 Regional Biophysical Environment 3 2.1 Regional Environment 3

2.2 Topography & Soils 3

2.3 Vegetation 3

2.4 Climate 4

3 Results 5 3.1 Vegetation Communities 5

3.2 Flora of Conservation Significance 7

3.3 Fauna of Conservation Significance 7

3.4 Conservation Areas/ Specified Ecosystems 7

4 Native Vegetation Clearing Principles 7

Tables

Table 1: Remaining Beard Vegetation Associations within Western Australia (DAFWA, 2011) ....................... 4

Table 2: Vegetation Communities identified within the survey area .................................................................. 5

Table 3: Assessment of exploration activities against native vegetation clearing principles ............................. 8

Figures Figure 1: Regional Map of the survey area........................................................................................................ 2

Figure 2: Mean monthly rainfall and temperature (January 1900 to December 2016) for the Laverton

weather station (#12045) (BOM, 2016) ............................................................................................................. 4

Figure 3: Vegetation Communities identified within the survey area ................................................................. 6

Goldphyre Resources Limited Flora and Fauna Assessment: Pilot Pond & Turkeys Nest

Botanica Consulting 1

1 Introduction

1.1 Project Description

Botanica Consulting (BC) was commissioned by Australian Potash Limited (formerly Goldphyre

Resources Limited) to undertake a Level 2 Flora and Fauna assessment of the Lake Wells Potash Project

covering an area of approximately 37,510ha. The survey was conducted from the 10th to 16th September

2016. Results of the full Level 2 assessment are still pending however this document outlines the findings

of the flora and fauna assessment of an area of approximately 0.8ha within the Level 2 survey area. The

nominal 0.8ha described in this report (referred to as the ‘survey area’) is proposed to be cleared for

development of a turkey’s nest and pilot pond. The survey area is located within tenement E38/2742

which is located approximately 160km north north-east of Laverton W.A and approximately 78km north

of Cosmo Newbery W.A (Figure 1). BC understands that the nominal turkey nest area was cleared in

November 2016 to allow implementation of a test pumping event approved under a Programme of Works

approved by the Department of Mines and Petroleum (PoW 60071) and a 5C licence (GWL182487)

approved by the Department of Water.

The aim of the assessment reported in this document was to provide a brief description of the vegetation/

fauna habitat within the survey area and identify the potential environmental significance of the area

including documenting and mapping locations of any Threatened Ecological Communities (TEC), Priority

Ecological Communities (PEC), Threatened or Priority Flora and Fauna species or other areas of

conservation significance.



Figure 1: Regional Map of the survey area



2 Regional Biophysical Environment

2.1 Regional Environment

The survey area lies within the Eremaean Province of WA. Based on the Interim Biogeographic

Regionalisation of Australia (IBRA) the Eremaean Province is divided into Bioregions with the survey area

located within the Great Victoria Desert Bioregion of Western Australia. The Great Victoria Desert

Bioregion is further divided into four subregions; Shield, Central, Maralinga and Kintore. The survey area

is located within the Shield (GVD1) subregion (Barton & Cowan, 2001a; Barton & Cowan, 2001b).

2.2 Topography & Soils

The Great Victoria Desert bioregion forms the southern part of the anti-clockwise whorl of dune fields of

Australia. The dominating landforms are dunes and swales. There are local occurrences of playa lakes,

associated lee-sided mounds (lunettes) and rocky prominences (Commonwealth Government, 2008b).

Playa lakes are a minor, but locally significant landform in the desert, occurring in topographically low-

lying regions and many represent the dried remnants of former drainage channels (Shephard, 1995). The

bioregion consists of active sand-ridge desert of deep Quaternary (less than 65 million years ago) aeolian

sands overlying Permian (251 – 298 million years ago) and Mesozoic (65 - 251 million years ago) units of

the Office Basin (Commonwealth Government, 2008b). The GVD is underlain on its eastern, western and

northern margins by an ancient crystalline basement comprising rocks at least 1000 million years old

(Shephard, 1995).

The western end of the Shield subregion is underlain by the Yilgarn Craton. Here there is a higher

proportion of sandplains in comparison to the entire bioregion. To the east is an arid active sand-ridge

desert of deep Quaternary aeolian sands overlying Permian and Mesozoic strata of the Officer Basin.

Landforms consist of salt lakes and major valley floors with lake derived dunes. The sandplains occur with

patches of seif dunes running east-west and areas of moderate relief without-cropping and silcrete-capped

mesas and plateaus (breakaways). The subregion contains a major palaeochannel of Ponton Creek

(Cowan, 2001).

Based on geographic information provided by DAFWA (2014), the survey area is located within the

Leemans Sandplain Zone 274 of the Murchison Province 27. The Leemans Sandplain Zone is

characterised by sandplains (with some gravel plains, mesas and salt lakes) on granitic rocks of the

Yilgarn Craton (Eastern Goldfields Superterrane). The zone is located in the south-western arid interior

between Lake Wells and Minigwal to the east of Laverton (Tille, 2006). These zones are further divided

into soil landscape systems, with the survey area located within the Carnegie System (274Ca). The

Carnegie System is characterised by salt lakes with fringing saline alluvial plains, kopi dunes and sandy

banks, supporting halophytic shrublands and Acacia tall shrublands (Tille, 2006).

Soils comprise red sandy earths with red loamy earths and some red deep sands, red-brown hardpan

shallow loams and calcareous loamy earths. Vegetation is predominantly spinifex grasslands with marble

gum, mallee and mulga shrublands (and some halophytic shrublands).

2.3 Vegetation

The survey area is located within the Helms Botanical District (as described by Beard, 1990) which

comprises a mosaic of tree and shrub steppe between sand hills and on sandplains, consisting of Marble

gum, mallee and spinifex (Eucalyptus gongylocarpa, E. youngiana, Triodia basedowii). E. gongylocarpa

is comparatively scarce with E. youngiana replaced by E. kingsmillii and Acacia aneura and A. linophylla

becoming frequent on the sandplain (Beard, 1990; Cowan, 2001).



The Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA) GIS file (2011) indicates that the survey area is

located within Pre-European Beard vegetation association Great Victoria Desert 125. Details on this

vegetation association as described by the DAFWA are provided in Table 1.

Areas retaining less than 30% of their pre-European vegetation extent generally experience exponentially

accelerated species loss, while areas with less than 10% are considered “endangered”. Development

within the survey area will not significantly reduce the extent of this vegetation association at a local or

regional scale.

Table 1: Remaining Beard Vegetation Associations within Western Australia (DAFWA, 2011)

Vegetation association

Pre-European

Extent (ha)

Current Extent (ha)

Pre-European

extent remaining

(%)

% of Current extent within

DPaW managed

lands

Vegetation Description (Beard,

1990)

Great Victoria Desert 125

54842.71 54842.71 100 0 Bare areas; salt lakes

2.4 Climate

The climate of the Great Victoria Desert is characterised as arid with summer and winter rain averaging

150 –190mm per annum (Cowan, 2001; Barton & Cowan, 2001). Average weather conditions can be

interpreted from weather data collected from the closest Bureau of Meteorology weather station; the

Laverton weather station (#12045) located approximately 160km south south-west of the Lake Wells

survey area (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Mean monthly rainfall and temperature (January 1900 to December 2016) for the Laverton weather station (#12045) (BOM, 2016)



3 Results

3.1 Vegetation Communities

Two vegetation communities were identified within the survey area as listed in Table 2. A map of the

vegetation communities within the survey area is provided in Figure 3. Neither of these communities

represent a TEC as listed under the EPBC Act or PEC as listed by DPaW.

Table 2: Vegetation Communities identified within the survey area

Code Vegetation Community Area (ha)

Area (%)

Image

CD-CSSSF1

Dense low shrub of Tecticornia indica subsp. bidens in playa

0.56 63.6

D-CFW1

Forest of Casuarina pauper over open low scrub of Acacia burkittii and open dwarf scrub of Atriplex vesicaria/ Rhagodia eremaea on

gypsum dune.

0.24 36.4

Total 0.8 100



Figure 3: Vegetation Communities identified within the survey area



3.2 Flora of Conservation Significance

No Threatened Flora listed under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity

Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999 or the Wildlife Conservation (WC) Act 1950 were identified within the

survey area. No Priority Flora listed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) were identified within

the survey area.

3.3 Fauna of Conservation Significance

No Threatened Fauna listed under the Commonwealth EPBC Act 1999 or the WC Act 1950 were identified

within the survey area. No Priority Fauna listed by DPaW were identified within the survey area.

3.4 Conservation Areas/ Specified Ecosystems

The survey area is not located within an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) as listed under the

Environmental Protection (EP) Act 1986. The survey area is not located within a ‘specified ecosystem’ as

described in the Department of Environment Regulation (DER), Environmental Siting Guidelines (2016)

with the survey area not located within a Conservation Reserve/ DPaW managed land (including

Threatened or Priority Ecological Community), Ramsar Site, Significant/ Nationally Important Wetland or

a Bush Forever Site. The nearest known specified ecosystem is the De La Poer Range Nature Reserve,

which is managed by DPaW, located approximately 12km to the west of the of the survey area. This

specified ecosystem is not proposed to be impacted by development within the survey area.

4 Native Vegetation Clearing Principles

Based on the outcomes from the assessment undertaken, as presented in this report, BC provides the

following comments regarding the native vegetation clearing principles listed under Schedule 5 of the EP

Act 1986 (Table 3).


Table 3: Assessment of exploration activities against native vegetation clearing principles

Letter Principle Assessment Outcome

(a) Native vegetation should not be cleared if it comprises a high level of biological diversity.

Vegetation identified within the survey area is not considered to be of high biological diversity, and is well represented outside of the proposed impact area.

Development within the survey area is unlikely to be at variance to this principle

(c) Native vegetation should not be cleared if it includes, or is necessary for the continued existence of rare flora.

No Threatened Flora taxa, pursuant to subsection (2) of section 23F of the WC Act 1950 and the EPBC Act 1999 were identified within the survey area


(d)

Native vegetation should not be cleared if it comprises the whole or part of, or is necessary for the maintenance of a threatened ecological community (TEC).

No TEC listed under the EPBC Act 1999 or by the DPaW occur within the survey area.


(e) Native vegetation should not be cleared if it is significant as a remnant of native vegetation in an area that has been extensively cleared

According to DAFWA (2011), the survey area occurs in pre-European Beard vegetation association Great Victoria Desert 125 which retains approximately 100% of the original vegetation extent.


(f)

Native vegetation should not be cleared if it is growing, in, or in association with, an environment associated with a watercourse or wetland

The survey area is located within Lake Wells. Lake Wells is described by Geoscience Australia (2001) GIS data as a non-perennial/ intermittent/ fluctuating inland water which covers an area of approximately 49,700 ha. The clearing proposed by the development (0.8ha) constitutes a maximum impact of 0.0001% on the total area of Lake Wells.


(g) Native vegetation should not be cleared if the clearing of the vegetation is likely to cause appreciable land degradation.

According to DAFWA (2011), the survey area occurs in pre-European Beard vegetation association Great Victoria Desert 125 which retains approximately 100% of the original vegetation extent. Clearing within these vegetation associations is not likely to lead to land degradation issues such as salinity, water logging or acidic soils.


(h)

Native vegetation should not be cleared if the clearing of the vegetation is likely to have an impact on the environmental values of any adjacent or nearby conservation area.

The survey area is not located within a conservation area. No PEC as listed by DPaW is located within the survey area.


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Flora and Fauna Assessment of the Pilot Pond and Turkeys ... · Flora and Fauna Assessment: Pilot Pond & Turkeys Nest Botanica Consulting 7 3.2 Flora of Conservation Significance