Vegetation complexes are patterns of vegetation at a regional scale based on factors such as landform, soil and climate.There are 26 within the Swan Coastal Plain (SCP) and 18 vegetation complexes within Jarrah Forest portions of the Perth Metropolitan Area.

Shire of Mundaring has many different types of vegetation complexes namely, Cooke, Coolakin, Darling Scarp, Dwellingup 2, Dwellingup 4, Dwellingup, Forrestfield, Goonaping, Guildford, Helena 2, Murray 2, Pindalup, Southern River Complex, Swamp, Swan Complex, Yalanbee, Yalanbee and Yarragil.

Before European settlement, the extent of these remnant native vegetation within the Shire of Mundaring was estimated to be 64,253 ha. Today 69.7% (44,763 ha ) of that remains intact.

This amount of vegetation is one of the highest remaining in a local government within the Perth Metropolitan area and the reason why Shire of Mundaring is so attractive to nature lovers. Much of the remaining native vegetation lies within Department of Conservation and Environment reserves, in particular within State forests and National Parks. Only about 2.7% of the bushland is currently managed by the Council. Most of the remaining areas are within private property which is why private land conservation is very important.

Table 1: 2001 Existing Native Vegetation Extent (hectares) by Ownership Category for the Shire of (Source: Local Government Biodiversity Planning Guidelines for the Perth Metropolitan Region, Perth Biodiversity Project, 2004).

 

Vegetation 

View a map of vegetation zonings in the Shire

Vegetation types within the Shire vary according to soil, slope and aspect. Some of the vegetation is unique to the Darling Scarp. Vegetation on the scarp consists of open woodlands of wandoo, marri, butter gums, sheoak, banksias and flooded gum in localized areas. There are also a great variety of specialised understorey shrubs and groundcovers such as lichens, mosses, rock ferns, hakeas, pimelea, grevilleas and acacias.

In the plateau areas are open forests of jarrah-marri, shrublands of parrot bush and sheoak species. The vegetation of the river valleys ranges from jarrah-marri on the slopes to mixtures of wandoo and yarri, black butt, flooded gum and paperbark, with shrublands of banksias, acacia, melaleuca or grevillea species.

The vegetation of the Ridge Hill Shelf in some of the very western areas consists of marri-wandoo-jarrah and jarrah-marri-sheoak with understorey species such as banksias, melaleuca and others. The Darling Range contains some rare and endangered plant species. As a result of this, important areas of vegetation are included in State, regional and local parks and reserves within the Shire of Mundaring.

Grevillea

For more information download the following:

Wetlands Grasses Poster

Common Native Grasses Poster

Weed brochure on Haas Grass