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Goldfields Woodlands, WA.

The vast eucalyptus woodland centred on Norseman is one of the world's greatest remaining untouched temperate woodlands. Stretching from Balladona in the east to the State Barrier Fence (and the commencement of farming land) in the west, and from the south coastal farming country inland from Esperance to beyond Menzies in the north, it covers more than a quarter of a million square kilometres. The dark area on the map shows the extent of the woodlands. Nowhere else in the world do so many different tall trees grow in such an arid zone. More than fifty kinds of eucalyptus grow in the Kalgoorlie region alone and roughly 16% (i.e. 80 species) of Australia's 500 species of eucalyptus grow in this remarkable woodland. Extent of the woodlands is controlled by a mixture of geology and rainfall (the annual average in Norseman is about 250mm). To the north a combination of red sandy plains and less rainfall sees a transition to the vast mulga plains of the 'inland', while to the east a more alkaline limestone soil-type (and again a reduction in rainfall) produces a landscape dominated by lower-growing species such as saltbush, bluebush and various acacias. To the west and south increasing rainfall and sandy soil types produced boundaries now blurred by broad-acre farming practices. In both scientific and popular terms the woodlands are comparatively unknown, and are generally under-valued.

Information. The text above is from the display board at Site 16 on the Norseman Woodland Walk.

30 March 2007

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