Commonwealth of Australia

Inclusion of ecological communities in the list of threatened ecological communities under section 181 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EC 93)

I, MARK BUTLER, Minister for Environment, Heritage and Water, pursuant to paragraph 184(1)(a) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, hereby amend the list referred to in section 181 of that Act by:

including in the list in the critically endangered category

Wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes

as described in the Schedule to this instrument.

Dated this….......... 5th ................day of…............. August ................2013.

Mark Butler

MARK BUTLER

Minister for Environment, Heritage and Water

SCHEDULE

Wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes

The Wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes ecological community is located in central-west New South Wales, north of the locality of Warren. It occurs entirely within the Darling Riverine Plains IBRA Bioregion.

The boundary of the Macquarie Marshes refers to the area specified as ‘Macquarie Marshes’ within the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia. The Macquarie Marshes is a complex of braided swamps, channels and gilgaied floodplain, inundated by flooding from the lower Macquarie River and its effluents and anabranches. The salinity of the water is fresh to slightly brackish, typically within the range 0 to 1g/L but can be up to 3g/L on occasions, for instance due to increased salt concentrations as temporary wetlands dry out.

The ecological community occurs within the Macquarie Marshes boundary as wetland and inner floodplain vegetation that is inundated on a permanent, seasonal or intermittent basis, depending on connections to water sources. The wetland and vegetation assemblages that comprise the Wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes ecological community are:

• Eucalyptus camaldulensis (river red gum) forest and woodland.
• Shrubland wetland dominated by the native shrubs Acacia stenophylla (river cooba) or Duma florulenta (lignum).
• Seasonal to intermittent wetland dominated by native grasses, sedges and herbs. Key species are Paspalum distichum (water couch), Phragmites australis (reedbeds), Typha spp. (cumbungi), Bolboschoenus spp. (clubrushes) and Eleocharis spp. (spikerushes).
• More permanent water bodies (lakes, billabongs, lagoons and channels) which may contain aquatic vegetation such as Vallisneria australis (ribbon weed) and Azolla spp. (floating ferns).

During dry periods, vegetation typical of drier sites, such as dryland grasses and chenopods, may encroach into wetland sites included in the ecological community as they dry. In natural systems this is a temporary cycle in which wetland vegetation replaces dryland species soon after inundation.

The Wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes ecological community includes habitat for numerous fauna, notably aquatic invertebrates, fish, frogs, waterbirds and woodland birds.