It’s no secret that the area around the Shannon Creek dam supports very high levels of biodiversity, thanks to a variety of geological forms and habitats that occur there. This was confirmed over 20 years ago by the numerous environmental impact surveys conducted before the dam’s construction.
More recently, a significant project to regenerate rainforest remnants in the area, funded by the Environmental Trust, has added significantly to that body of knowledge. Surveys conducted as part of that project found the Shannon Creek – Chambigne area supports more than 1000 native plant species, many of which are endemic to the Clarence Valley, leading to its being recognised as a centre of endemism, with new discoveries still occurring.
These include a never-before recorded Donkey Orchid spotted by a keen-eyed visitor last month. As well, several trees that have defied botanists who have tried to identify them for the past two years, have finally flowered. This has further deepened the mystery as they appear to be an undescribed form of White Beech, and flowering specimens are currently being examined at the Mount Annan National Herbarium to determine if they are a new species.
High diversity of plant life generally correlates to a high diversity of fauna, and the Shannon Creek area is proving that point. For example, the current state-wide “bats in backyards” program, being conducted by the Environment Department’s Saving our Species team, proudly announced that the program had so far identified 20 microbat species including 8 listed as threatened across some 300 properties.
Microbats were also separately monitored at Shannon creek as part of the rainforest regeneration project, and in the three years that monitoring was carried out, no less than 17 species were recorded each year, with 23 different species identified over that period. Those records were recorded from just four sites across Council’s “Rockview” property.
The regeneration project has now ended, and follow-up work is crucial, but with only 2 bush regenerators on council’s staff, that appears unlikely and all that good work will be undone.
- John Edwards
Originally published under the title "A centre of endemism on council land" in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 8 January, 2025.
