Biodiversity is life - Our life

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on earth and the value of biodiversity for our lives. 

What is ‘biodiversity’? Biodiversity is the variety and interaction of all life on Earth. It includes all organisms, species, and populations and their complex relationships in communities and ecosystems.

The Great Western Woodlands is an extraordinary example of biodiversity, a cornucopia of life.

The Great Western Woodlands area in South-Western WA

The Woodlands span almost 16 million hectares, from Kalgoorlie in the north to Salmon Gums in the south, and from the Wheatbelt in the west to the Nullarbor Plain in the east.

The Great Western Woodlands sits on part of the Yilgarn Craton – one of the oldest rock formations on Earth. Unlike many other parts of the Earth, this land has remained stable for millions of years, not shaped by volcanoes, glaciers and ocean submergence. As a result, the Woodland’s biological diversity has evolved through an unbroken lineage stretching back some 250 million years.

Covering two percent of the continent, the area holds more than 3000 plant species, which is 20% of our known diversity. This includes 20% of Australia’s iconic Eucalypts, making it the nations ‘Eucalypt heartland’.

The region is also a vitally important refuge to hundreds of types of native animals, including rare and threatened species such as the beautiful Chuditch (or Spotted Quoll), Western Brush Wallaby, Greater Long-eared Bat and Red–tailed Phascogale.

Biodiversity = connectivity

Plants and animals, including humans, need large connected ecosystems like the Great Western Woodlands in order to survive. Scale and connectivity build resilience into these ecosystems, keeping them healthy in the face of a changing climate. These healthy ecosystems can then provide us with life giving necessities like good water, clean air and living soil.

Biodiversity in the Great Western Woodlands is not uniform. Different parts have different plants and animals – it is a mosaic of different ecosystems, each supporting an array of life forms. While some animals are specialised and restricted, others migrate through the landscape following food and water sources. This makes it impossible to conserve the biological richness of the area with the old model of small, fragmented reserve areas.

Landscape scale conservation is essential. This requires a new model of land management; one that maintains and protects the Great Western Woodland’s diversity and its supporting ecological processes, and one that includes all land – across all tenures – and involves all stakeholders in the region.

In celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity, let’s take a closer look at some of the plants and animals found in the largest remaining intact woodland on earth – the amazing Great Western Woodlands.

Western Quoll Dasyurus geoffroii

The Western Quoll or Chuditch. Photo: Lochman Transparencies

Status: Threatened

Distribution: Only in south-western Australia, in areas dominated by sclerophyll forest or drier woodland and mallee shrubland.

Diet: Carnivorous -  Insects, reptiles, other mammals & birds

Breeding: Litters (up to 6) are born from May to September, most appearing in June and July. By 9 wks they have out grown their mothers pouch and are left in the den while their mother forages. At one year they capable of breeding.

Salt gum, Eucalyptus salicola

Salt gum, Eucalyptus salicola. Photo: Amanda Keesing

Status: Restricted, endemic to WA

Distribution: Scattered distribution but widespread in the wheatbelt; from Newdegate and south-west of Kellerberrin eastwards to the Great Victoria Desert, always in the vicinity of salt lakes;

Some Characteristics: Smooth bark and crown resembling a salmon gum, and adaptation to salty soils; bark often powdery.

Regent Parrot Polytelis anthopeplus

Regent parrot. Photo: Lochman Transparencies

Distribution: Inland se. Aust, w. to murray-bridge-Morgan (SA), n. and e. to Pooncarie-Balranald (NSW), s. to swan Hill - Wyperfeld NP (Vic). Race westralis: sw. WA, w. and s. of Isralite Bay- Shark Bay. Likes clearings in woodlands, forests; saltbush. Seasonally nomadic, may move well north and inland beyond stated limits after good rains.

Diet: feeds on ground and in, blossoms of eucalyptus, acacias, mistletoe's, unripe grain, split grain on roadsides; roosts communally.

Nests: Autumn, hollow eucalyptus, stumps 4-6 eggs

Verticordias (genus), Feather Flowers

Beautiful Verticordias or Feather Flowers. Photo: David Mackenzie

Status: Most are restricted, all but 1 of the 101 species are endemic to WA

Distribution: Most species distributed in a line west of Shark Bay on the west coast and Israelite Bay on the south coast. Some species extend into the Great Western Woodlands through to the desert regions. Three species occur in the tropics one of which in the NT.

Some Characteristics: Distinctive shrubs with an amazing array of colors. 

Jewel beetle, family - Buprestidae

Vibrant Jewel Beetle. Photo: Lochman Transparencies

Australia is home to around 1,500 species of these beautiful beetles. Australia also has the highest proportion of flower-visiting species in the world. The Great Western Woodlands is critical habitat for these invertebrates and in turn the Jewel beetle is critical to the survival of flowering species of plant in the region. In spring the Eucalyptus literally drip with beetles in some areas - playing a vital role in pollination. 

The Great Western Woodlands is one of the most bio-diverse regions on Earth - to learn more, download the report - 'The Extraordinary nature of the Great Western Woodlands'