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Biodiversity & Land Management
Flora & Fauna Monitoring
One of many nest boxes
installed at Liddell Coal
Liddell Coal undertakes flora and fauna surveys to monitor the distribution and abundance of native flora and fauna over the life of the coal mine and monitors changes in flora and fauna populations which may result from the operation of the mine.
Annual flora monitoring is undertaken at four sites at Liddell Colliery. The locations include remnant vegetation and rehabilitated vegetation communities. In 2007, a combined total of 112 flora species were recorded across the four monitoring plots, 91 of which are native and 21 of which are introduced. No threatened flora species or endangered ecological communities (EECs) have been recorded within any of the four monitoring plots. One flora species listed as an endangered population, tiger orchid (Cymbidium canaliculatum), has been recorded during the 2005, 2006 and 2007 monitoring surveys.
A total of 96 species were identified during the 2007 fauna monitoring program. Two threatened bird species, the grey-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis temporalis), and blue-billed duck (Oxyura australis) and three threatened mammal species, the eastern bentwing-bat (Miniopterus schreibersii oceanensis), the eastern freetail bat (Mormopterus norfolcensis) and the eastern cave bat (Vespadelus troughtoni) were recorded during the 2007 monitoring program. One additional species, the speckled warbler (Pyrrholaemus sagittatus), was recorded during the 2006 monitoring surveys. The grey-crowned babbler, speckled warbler and eastern bentwing-bat are relatively commonly recorded threatened species in the Hunter region where suitable habitat exists. The blue-billed duck (Oxyurus australis) was recorded in two man-made dam locations during the 2007 monitoring surveys. The blue-billed duck sightings are significant records of the species in the Hunter region, with the nearest known record occurring in the Newcastle area. No records of the blue-billed duck are known from nearby Lake Liddell.
Liddell Coal installs and maintains nest boxes to enhance or replace the habitat of threatened species. An additional five nest boxes were added in July 2007.