Near Tommpine, Queensland, Australia Photograph by www.c2ctours.com   Eastern central Australia Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands   98,000 square miles (253,900 square kilometers) -- about the size of Alabama and New York combined Vulnerable

· Alive in the Acacias
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Alive in the Acacias

Dense mulga shrublands extend from New South Wales into Queensland, Australia, growing on infertile, red soils. Mulgas are small acacia trees or shrubs that are highly drought-resistant. In these ecoregions, Mulga shrublands and sand plains combine with swamps, channels, small lakes, and claypans. Eucalyptus trees, such as the small bimble box tree, coolibah trees, and silver-leaved ironbarks grow here as well. Beneath the trees grows a short understory of shrubs and hardy grasses, such as speargrass. Semi-permanent lakes provide an important refuge for waterbirds in an otherwise arid area.

Special Features

Mulga trees have several adaptations for surviving in arid environments. The crown and branches are shaped to collect and direct rainfall efficiently. Together they channel half the rain that falls on the crown down the tree to its base. Mulga trees also have a two-layered root system--a surface layer to collect light rainfall and another layer deep below the surface to obtain moisture from the desert's buried drainage network. In this ecoregion, rainfall is more abundant than in central Australia and supports taller mulga trees--up to 16 feet (5 m) high--in higher densities. Two lakes in this ecoregion, Lake Wyara and Lake Numalla, are geographically close but radically different. Lake Wyara is a saltwater lake and has a greater diversity of underwater plants and a greater number of bird species, including the rare freckled duck, than Lake Numalla. Lake Wyara also often dries out completely, becoming a vast, glaring saltpan. Lake Numalla, which is a freshwater lake, hardly ever dries out and is home to large wading birds and other birds that eat fish and shrimp.

	The rare bilby is being bred in captivity and released in a fenced area in Currawinya National Park. This fenced area will protect them from being preyed upon by cats and dingos. The bilby is about the size of a rabbit and has large ears and a pointed snout. It is the only arid-dwelling bandicoot left of the six species that were present when Europeans first arrived.

Wild Side

In all, more than 41 bird species and up to 280,000 individual birds have been recorded on Lakes Wyara and Numalla. Birds include migrants such as the brightly colored rainbow bee-eater and plant-eating ducks such as the Australasian shoveler. On land, red and gray kangaroos bound through the thick shrublands. Packs of dingos--yellow and brown wild dogs--hunt red kangaroos. The copper or brown mulga snake searches for small mammals and reptiles. The threatened little pied bat, which has distinctive black and white fur, roosts in caves, abandoned mine shafts, and buildings. The rare bridled nailtail wallaby comes out at dusk to graze on grasses and shrubs. Another rare wallaby, the endangered yellow-footed rock wallaby, is brightly colored, with yellow and orange fur on its limbs and a long yellow and brown striped tail.

Cause for Concern

Most of this land is used for sheep and cattle grazing. Sheep and cattle compete with native wildlife for food, and overgrazing damages vegetation. Feral animals such as foxes and cats prey upon wildlife. Introduced rabbits eat young mulga seedlings, seriously affecting the plants’ ability to regenerate.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.