Conservation Credentials

A threatened species the Bell-fruit tree is found in a number of plant communities on Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary

How significant a conservation and research asset is Arkaroola  today?

• 70 square km set aside for Yellow-footed rock-wallaby conservation in 1981 and listed on Register for the National Estate.
• Several Geological Monuments including Mt Gee.
• Several inclusions on the Register for the National Estate including Mt Gee, Mt Painter, the Armchair and Paralana Hot Springs.
• Home to a number of Threatened species at National, State and Regional level including Acacia araneosa * (Spider wattle), Codonocarpus pyramidalis (Bell-fruit tree), Acanthiza iredalei iredalei (Slender-billed Thornbill — western form), Petrogale xanthopus * (Yellow-footed rock wallaby ), Mogurnda clivicola * (Flinders Ranges Purple-spotted gudgeon).
  * Nationally Threatened species
• Pastoral Assessment 2000 – 2nd best Land Condition Index for any pastoral property in South Australia. 2.6 (out of a possible 3) based on 119 randomly selected observation points.
• IUCN ¹ Regional Manager for Asia / Pacific Andrew Ingles visited in March 2005 and described the Arkaroola property as having international conservation significance.
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  Weed mapping on Arkaroola

  Integrity of native vegetation – absence of broad-scale introduced weeds such as onion weed and ward’s weed.

• Most significant mulga regeneration of any property in the Flinders Ranges, after the 1971 – 74 wet years (Flinders Ranges Management Review 1989).
• Prime Yellow-footed rock wallaby habitat – 35 colonies identified. (Arkaroola contributed funds to a World Wildlife Fund for Nature study and census in 1981/2 of extant Yellowfoot populations over the species historic range). Current population trending upwards.
• Considerable investment made over the past decade by Commonwealth and State governments in integrated pest control – Arkaroola is an Operation Bounceback stakeholder (collaborative threatened species management and feral animal control with DEH South Australia).
• Mars Analogue – Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary was selected from six candidate regions as a prime Mars Analogue area in 2001. Prototype equipment to be used in the search for life on Mars has been tested on the sanctuary. Further trials are planned. Arkaroola’s landscapes provide planetary scientists with a window into the evolution of early life on Earth and inform the search for primitive life on other planets.
• A seismological station at Arkaroola has provided over twenty years of earthquake records that assist in the understanding of regional and global tectonics. The site was selected because of its geology and remoteness from human disturbance.
  ¹ The International Union for Conservation of Nature & Natural Resources is the world’s largest conservation network. Using objective, scientifically-based assessments, the IUCN identifies the current state of globally threatened biodiversity in its Red List. www.iucnredlist.org
• Fertile teaching terrain – Arkaroola has been used by generations of university professors, to train geology students.
• Current research projects include an investigation of Arkaroola’s extremophiles – American and Scottish astrobiologists are trying to understand how organisms survive in extreme environments such as radio-active hot springs. Others are looking at the relationship between UV radiation, radioactivity and DNA damage. An Adelaide team has found new minerals at Arkaroola and expect to make further discoveries in the future.

Extract from Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary’s From the ARK e-newsletter – reprinted with permission