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 44)
 
 
I, GREG HUNT, Minister for the Environment, pursuant to paragraph 184(1)(d) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, hereby amend the list referred to in section 181 of that Act by:
 
amending the list in the critically endangered category by updating the name and information about the known extent and description of:
Weeping Myall – Coobah – Scrub Wilga Shrubland of the Hunter Valley
to:
Hunter Valley Weeping Myall (Acacia pendula) Woodland
as described in the Schedule to this instrument.
 
 
 
 
 
Dated this….......... 3rd ..................... day of…...December .......... 2014
 
 
 
Greg Hunt
 
 
 
GREG HUNT
Minister for the Environment
 
SCHEDULE
 
Hunter Valley Weeping Myall (Acacia pendula) Woodland
 
The Hunter Valley Weeping Myall (Acacia pendula) Woodland ecological community is found in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales between the localities of Singleton and Merriwa. It occurs on undulating plains that are associated with a range of grassy woodland communities within the Hunter Valley.
 
The ecological community is a low forest to woodland with a canopy dominated by Acacia pendula (weeping myall). Eucalypts are uncommon in the canopy  but may occur as scattered emergent trees. Other native shrubs are present in the ecological community and may include: Acacia salicina (coobah), Acacia homalophylla-melvillei (yarran), Geijera spp. (wilga), Dodonaea viscosa (hop bush), Notolaea microphylla (native olive), Psydrax odorata (stiff canthium), Sarcostemma viminale (caustic bush), Senna artemisioides (silver cassia) or Spartothamnella juncea (red bead bush). The ground layer is variable and may comprise a range of native grasses, forbs and/or low chenopods, including: Themeda triandra (kangaroo grass), Rytidosperma spp. (wallaby grasses), Cymbopogon refractus (barbed wire grass), Chrysocephalum apiculatum (common everlasting) and Enchylaena tomentosa (ruby saltbush).
 
The presence of weeping myall in the Hunter Valley represents the easternmost occurrence of this species. It is of regional significance, being disjunct from the main distribution of weeping myall on the western plains of NSW and Queensland.