The South West Australia Ecoregion (SWAE) is Australia’s only Global Biodiversity Hotspot, and is home to a variety of unique flora and fauna which are under serious threat. In fact, this region has the highest concentration of rare and endangered species in Australia. The region stretches from Shark Bay in the north to Esperance in the south covering 48.9million ha of land, and includes the Avon region. Although it only covers 5% of the Australian land mass, SWAE contains about 8,000 plant species - more than one-third of Australia’s known flowering plants.
75% of the plants discovered so far are only found here (endemic). It is also home to a many different animals, birds and fungi species, many of which are endemic (7 species of mammals, 13 species of birds, 34 species of reptiles and 28 species of frogs). Invertebrates are relatively poorly known but it is likely that high numbers of endemic species are also present.
The importance of the South West Australia biodiversity is recognised by the Australian Government with 3 out of 15 National Biodiversity hotspots located In the SW Australia Ecoregion. One of these the Central and Eastern Avon Wheatbelt (Western Australia) forms part our region. Keep an eye on the next Enews to find out more about the South West Ecoregion.
