Animals and Plants of Australia

Australia is a country of extremes and the flora and fauna that inhabit the country have adapted to the conditions of drought, fire and scarcity. Many animals in Australia cannot be found anywhere else in the world because Australia became cut off from other continents millions of years ago through continental drift. Australia is famous for its marsupials and monotremes. Most of the 140 species of marsupials in Australia are found nowhere else in the world. A marsupium or pouch is one of the features that characterise marsupials, although not all have a permanent pouch and a few have none at all. Like mammals marsupials are covered in fur and bear live young which are suckled by the mother. However in marsupials young are born undeveloped, blind, without fur, and have to make their way into the pouch and develop further there. Marsupials in Australia include koala, wombats, kangaroos and wallabies, possums and gliders, bandicoots and bilbies, numbat, carnivorous marsupials like the Tasmanian devil and a marsupial mole. Australia’s two species of Monotreme are the platypus and the echidna. These unique animals produce milk like mammals but lay eggs instead of live young. In addition to the large number of unique marsupials Australia also has many amazing species of reptiles (like the frilled-necked lizard, the monitor lizard, poisonous snakes and two kinds of crocodile), birds (like kookaburras, cockatoos, bowerbirds, lyrebirds, Australian magpies and emus), insects and an abundance of sea-life. 

Australia has 20,000 species of plants, including living fossils such as the cycad palm and the grass tree, and brilliant wildflowers such as the waratah, Sturt’s desert pea, the flowering cones of banksia trees, and the red and green kangaroo paw. The continent has 700 species of acacia, which Australians call wattle, and 1,200 species in the Myrtaceae family, which includes eucalypts or gum trees. Wildflowers turn the arid and savanna grassland areas of Australia into carpets of colour after rain. Native forests are limited mainly to wetter coastal districts and rainforests are mainly in Queensland. It is the eucalypts that really catch your eye in Australia. They cover the length and breath of the country, and grown in the snow country, the tropics, and in salt-laden estuary banks and harsh deserts. Some species hug the ground while others reach towards the sky and specimens more than 150 metres in height have been recorded. 

The introduction of plant and animal species by humans and human destruction of habitat has had a negative impact on the fauna and the flora of Australia. Many unique native species have become extinct and many others are currently endangered. The introduced animals that have had a dramatic effect include dingos, rabbits, foxes, wild horses, pigs, cats and the cane toad. The development of agriculture on the coastal slopes and inland plains has had a significant impact on tree cover. Today efforts are being made to protect native species and Australia has established a system of more than 500 national parks and 2700 conservation areas. There are also projects underway to re-plant trees across Australia and better care for the land. 

The Biology and Biodiversity of Adelaide

Assoc. Prof. Chris Daniels, Director BioCity: The Centre for Urban Habitats, University of Adelaide

Adelaide is unique among Australian capital cities due to its position in the South Australian landscape, between the hills and the sea, isolating it from other regions.  The Adelaide metropolitan region spans eighty kilometres, from Sellicks Beach in the south to Gawler River in the north, and is bound by the sea of Gulf St Vincent in the west and the escarpment of the Mt Lofty Range in the east and south.  The Adelaide region includes a wide range of vegetation types and is characterised by its unique combination of biota.  The Adelaide plains are situated within plant and animal species ranges from both the western Mediterranean-type eco-regions and the south-eastern eco-regions of southern Australia (often the extreme east or west of these home ranges).

Historically, Adelaide has supported a diverse range of natural habitats.  The dominant land use for the Adelaide area now is cropping and pasture (slightly greater than 2/5ths), urban habitats (slightly less than 2/5ths), and the remaining 1/5th is composed of remnant vegetation, orchards, irrigated areas, water bodies, quarries, swamp, hardwood plantations, and pine plantations. About 4% of the Adelaide region consists of the original vegetation. The Adelaide Plains supports approximately 1654 species of native and introduced vascular plants, approximately 290 species of bird (including introduced as well as migratory and nomadic species), 20 native and introduced mammals, 56 reptile species and 7 amphibian species.

Of the plants, Adelaide is dominated by trees.  Most of the area was originally lightly wooded, with grey box (Eucalyptus microcarpa), peppermint box (E. odorata) and river red gum (E. camaldulensis var. camaldulensis) as the dominant species.  Xanthorrhoea spp. (grass trees) are common along the foothills, and trees such as the quandong (Santalum acuminatum) and native cherry (Exocarpus cupressiformis) are also present.  We also have street forests of introduced trees including plane trees, elm, ash, willow, poplar, claret ash, jacaranda, hackberry and the beautiful bottle brush.  Of the animals, the most notable are birds. We have a spectacular array of parrots, including the large yellow-tailed black cockatoo, and the colourful Adelaide and eastern rosellas. Noisy miners and red-wattlebirds compete with kookaburras magpies and pee-wees to make the parklands a very noisy place.  In the Hills, the koala population is now quite large, and frequently animals can be seen in the large gums of most of the eastern suburbs.  Possums are commonly seen at night as is also the feral fox, which has taken up residence in many sections of town.  Eastern grey kangaroos occur in Belair National Park. The blue-tongue lizard is a large active skink harmless, and good for the garden because it eats snails and slugs. Brown snakes are highly venomous and should be treated with great caution if encountered. We have 4 species of common frog and 3 species are now rare. The coastal beaches have an excellent biodiversity, and fishing is a popular pastime. The most eagerly caught species include world famous king George whiting, gar, snapper , tommy roughs and mullet.