Dear all,
This last weekend I had the good fortune to travel to a site to the
north-west of home (Yuendumu, NT) to a site on the Tanami Track 20km
west of the Granites gold mine.
There is what I understand to be a paleodrainage system that drains from
the huge expanse of the Tanami Desert to the north of the site. 20km
west of the Granites there is a swampy plain several kilometres across
that drains to the south and crosses the road at a couple of points.
There is a large body of open water just to the north of one of these
crossings and the low ground to either side is inundated under the
tussock grasses and low shrubby vegetation.
We had good rain (several hundred mm) at Yuendumu in late January and
Rabbit Flat roadhouse (the closest recording point to the site)
recorded several very large falls during that time.
Leaving the flooded area to the north-west the road rises to cross an
area of higher ground about 7 km wide. Descending from that higher
ground you come across another floodout area. The first drainage line
travels to the south, around the higher ground and then crosses the road
again - this time flowing to the north!
Again there are areas where water crosses the road and the edges are
soggy in both areas so care needs to be taken not to get bogged. All of
the low ground is inundated and there is a substantial area of boggy
plain around the inundated area.
From maps of the area it appears that the flooded area covers some
hundreds of square kilometres and the drainage basin must some several
thousand square kilometres in area. There are a couple of large
ephemeral lakes to the north, well into the Tanami Desert, that this
system drains into.
Rainfall sufficient to get this system working is fairly rare (though it
did fill last year in about May) and two good years in a row would be an
exceptional event. I believe that the value of this system, both to the
birds in the area and to the country generally, is not well appreciated
and is certainly worthy of further study.
Dave Gibson et al surveyed this area in the early 80's but I am not
aware of any more recent systematic survey efforts in this area (or the
larger Lake Mackay further to the west) in recent years. When Gibson
surveyed the Tanami area I recall that there had been no substantial
rain for some time.
There is a fair amount of water in rockholes, soakages & gravel pits etc
along the way and the country generally has been well-watered and is
generally 'fat'.
Preliminary list of birds seen en-route and at the area included:
- Swamp Harrier (several in small groups up to 4 birds);
- Brown Falcon (common);
- Royal Spoonbill;
- Black-fronted Dotterel;
- Unidentified Sandpiper (small flocks at water);
- Red-capped Dotterel;
- Masked Lapwing;
- Black-winged Stilt (previously observed breeding (May 2006) and many
juveniles present);
- Pink-eared duck;
- Plumed Whistle duck;
- Eurasian Coot;
- various Terns UNID to date;
- Intermediate Egret (& possibly Great);
- Straw-necked Ibis;
- Wedgetail Eagle;
- Diamond Dove;
- Crested Pigeon;
- Splendid Fairy-wren;
- Black-eared Cuckoo;
- Zebra Finch;
- Black-faced Woodswallow;
- Singing Honeyeater;
- Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater;
- Budgerigar;
- Singing/Brown Bushlark;
- Fairy Martin;
- Whistling Kite;
- Australasian Grebe (breeding);
- Black Kite;
- Grey Teal;
- Nankeen Kestrel;
- Pied Honeyeater;
- Magpie Lark;
- White-plumed Honeyeater; and
- Rufous Whistler.
Nothing exceptional really. It was nice to see numbers of one of my
favourite birds, the Swamp Harrier (and a couple of unconfirmed Spotted
Harriers) and I'm sure there are many more species at the site. Access
via the Tanami Track is good (and open as long as you don't access the
Aboriginal Land for which a permit is required) but large areas of the
site are inundated and access would be difficult in any event. A scope
would assist greatly to see the many birds sitting at some distance from
the road.. The weather was extremely hot (40 C plus) limiting movement
during the day.
I'll try to get back there again later this week or next weekend for a
better look.
Cheers.
Robert Gosford
Yuendumu
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