2016-12-12 General Committee - Attachment 1 to Item 6 - Biodiversity Assessment Report

                                                Noosa Biodiversity Plan – Biodiversity Assessment Report




                Endangered                                            Of Concern



                                         In Noosa                                             In Noosa


                            53%          Outside of                              54%          Outside of
                                         Noosa                                                Noosa




Figure 7: Proportion of Endangered and Of Concern neighbouring LGA REs within Noosa Shire



Area of conservation significant vegetation
Based on remnant vegetation extent, Noosa Shire has the highest proportion of Endangered and Of
Concern REs than any other neighbouring LGA or the SEQ bioregion as a whole (Table 1). Within Noosa
11% of remnant vegetation is of an Endangered status and 28% is of an Of Concern status. That is out
of the 40,265 ha of remnant vegetation, 4,317 ha is Endangered and 11,144 ha is Of Concern.

The shire also contains three Endangered REs and four Of Concern REs of which >10% of their total
remnant extent across SEQ falls within Noosa. This means that Noosa, which makes up 1.4% of the
SEQ bioregion area, contains a significant proportion of these REs for the size of the shire. These REs
include:

    •   12.3.1 - Gallery rainforest (notophyll vine forest) on alluvial plains
    •   12.5.3 - Eucalyptus racemosa subsp. racemosa woodland on remnant Tertiary surfaces
    •   12.11.16 - Eucalyptus cloeziana open forest on metamorphics +/- interbedded volcanics
    •   12.3.4 - Melaleuca quinquenervia, Eucalyptus robusta woodland on coastal alluvium
    •   12.3.2 - Eucalyptus grandis tall open forest on alluvial plains
    •   12.2.13 - Open or dry heath on dunes and beaches
    •   12.9-10.1 - Tall open forest often with Eucalyptus resinifera, E. grandis, E. robusta, Corymbia
        intermedia on sedimentary rocks.

Noosa’s unique Regional Ecosystems
Various REs within Noosa possess important and significant ecological values, including habitat for
threatened and migratory species (refer to Section 2.4) or critical wetland and riverine ecological
functions (refer to Section 2.6 and 2.7). Some are also recognised by the Commonwealth Government
as TECs (refer to Section 2.3). However, of particular significance is RE12.2.15a and RE12.9-10.1.

RE12.2.15a is described as permanent and semi-permanent window lakes on Quaternary coastal dunes
and beaches. This wetland is a unique ecosystem known as a patterned fen and is the only subtropical
representation known in the world. Noosa contains the largest complex of this ecosystem within the
Cooloola Recreation Area, located in the north-eastern corner of the shire in the eastern side of the Noosa
River. Smaller areas also occur in the Noosa National Park. The ecosystem not only provides habitat
for a variety of rare and threatened species, but also provides an ecological archive of past climatic



  © ECO LOGICAL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD                                                                          29