Region: Portland Legal Number: LEGL/93-2 Plantation: Lyon's

93-2d Jan 01: DNRE/Hancock licence area. Northern Lyons plantation. Native vegetation at this site could be logged in the future?.

Conservation Priority: High

Plantation maps of region here

Plantation located in Portland Groundwater Management Area

The Nationally Threatened Temperate Grassland & Grassy Eucalypt Woodland Ecological Community may occur in this plantation or in close proximity.

Plantation located on Victorian Volcanic Plain Bioregion.

More Information:

http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/publications/pubs/grasslands-victoria.pdf

Plantation within S.E.A.S Sapfor (Auspine) area of supply.
Plantation within AKD Softwoods area of supply.

Google Earth image early 2001: Emerson plantation lies alongside Cobboboonee State Forest.

Responsible Authority: Glenelg Shire Council

Plantation where the Secretary CNR (now Department of Natural Resources and Environment) retains specified rights to harvest hardwood sawlogs.

Herbicides Used by Hancock in Pine Plantations South Western Victoria

THREATENED FISH NOTES - GLENAULIN CREEK/CRAWFORD RIVER: Only known habitat for FFG listed Ewens Pygmy Perch in Victoria.

THREATENED FISH NOTES - GLENELG RIVER: Yarra Pygmy Perch and Ewens Pygmy Perch found in the Glenelg system. Both species listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act in Victoria and threatened.

Ewens Pygmy Perch

Plantation Catchment: Southern creek drains into Fitzroy River. Northern creek flows into Springburn Creek/Crawford River?/Glenelg River. Plantation lies near swamp land to the west.

Catchment Management Authority: Glenelg-Hopkins Catchment Management Authority.

Hancock Watch Site Visit Jan 01: Checked out native veg area where DNRE still retains rights to log. This area lies between Red Hill Track and Bear Park Track. The area consists of regrowth and some older trees with what appears to be a wetland in the northern portion of the area. This area is vital corridor between state forest on either side of the plantation. Area also connected to other DNRE area in the south of the plantation (which consists of regrowth) by an extensive buffer zone. The buffer area appears to run through the plantation connecting the two DNRE areas. Older trees exist in the buffer zone in what appears to be a trib of the Fitzroy river. A track from Bear Park Track called S3 runs along the buffer zone. The southern plantation on the eastern side has a strip of native vegetation between 100 m and 50 m thick running along the road on the eastern edge of the plantation. On the other side is paddocks, thus this native vegetation is all that remains. Also checked out eastern edge of northern plantation. There is another small DNRE licence area of young stringybark that warrants protection.

Crawford River: Flows through forest and grazing land, mud bottom. Contains mostly redfin, river blackfish, eels and abundant spiny freshwater crayfish, and tench. A popular angling water. Currently no stocking with any species as stream tribuataries contain variegated pigmy perch, which is a species listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 as requiring protection. Source: A Guide to the Inland Angling Waters of Victoria by BR Tunbridge, PL Rogan, CA Barnham. Department Conservation and Environment. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, 123 Brown St, Heidelberg, 3084. (4th ed - 1991)

According to current records, the Variegated Pygmy Perch is restricted to south-western Victoria and adjacent areas of south eastern South Australia. Despite intensive collecting efforts between 1983 and 1985, the species was found at only two localities; Glenaulin Creek (the type locality) at Winnap, Victoria, and Ewen's Ponds in South Australia (Kuiter & Allen 1986).

A 1990 survey of the waters in the Crawford River and Glenaulin Creek area undertaken by the then Department of Conservation and Environment identified several locations where the species exists in tributaries of the Crawford River and Glenelg River. Three locations were in Glenaulin Creek, near the location previously surveyed by Kuiter and Allen. It also appears that the population has returned to a healthy state in the streams feeding Ewen's Ponds.

93-2b Jan 01: Buffer zone of tributary of Fitzroy River, about 500m from S3 track (off Bear Park Track).

93-2c Jan 01: Buffer zone of tributary of Fitzroy River, about 500m from S3 track (off Bear Park Track). Note pines in background.

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"Groundwater: "In south-western Victoria the Otway Basin stretches from the South Australian border almost to the west of Geelong. It contains older sediments of Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary age, up to 2000 m in thickness. These include four sand aquifers and two limestone aquifers. The sand aquifers of the Wangerrip Group are confined over most of the Basin and their recharge zones are located on the margins of the Otway Range in the east and the Merino Tablelands in the West. The groundwater moves towards the coast, increasing in salinity along its floorpath . . ." p268 State of the Environment Report 1988 Victoria's Inland Waters. Office of the Commissioner for the Environment.

"Shallow aquifers in the Glenelg River Basin occur in four main geologic units . . . The third unit is a Newer Volcanic aquifer which lies along much of the Basin's southern boundary, particularly in the east. This fractured rock aquifer is composed of basalt, scoria and tuff. The fourth unit is composed of dune sand and beach deposits extending from the south-west corner of the Basin up to the western boundary and along the northern boundary. It is known as the Bridgewater formation.

A deep aquifer system exists in the south-west of the Basin and extends to the top of the western boundary and half-way across the southern boundary. This sand aquifer, which is significant as a water source, occurs within the Wangerrip Group.

Generally, groundwater quality in the Basin decreases towards the north where it is saline. A large reserve of fresh water is held in the north-east corner of the catchment and in the south-west the water is of marginal quality . . ." p295 Water Victoria A Resource Handbook - Department of Water Resources Victoria 1989.