The gentle nature of the long, deep pools at Beringa Reserve belie their importance to the surrounding landscape and beyond.
These salt water pools, part of the Peniup Creek and Hegarty Creek systems, provide exceptional habitat for local native species and are fringed with dense trees and shrubs – an uncommon sight in this part of Western Australia.
Saline pool surrounded by bushland, saltwater paperbark (Melaleuca cuticularis) in foreground.
Beringa is also an important component of Gondwana Link, an ambitious project to restore a 1,000km swathe of bushland from Western Australia's southwest to the edge of the Nullarbor Plain.
As part of this broader project, Beringa plays a critical role in protecting mallee heath, granite communities and moort woodlands. It also protects some of the most important intact riparian (creekside) vegetation in the region.
Flowering shrubs in revegetation zone in front of remaining mallee.
The small hollows that form in moort trees older than 30 years are used by tiny Pygmy Possums and Owlet Nightjars. Moort flowers are a source of nectar and pollen for a wide variety of honeyeaters.
Beringa is also part of a program to sustain populations of the significant Tammar and Black-gloved Wallabies.
All this has been protected thanks to the generosity of our supporters.
What Beringa Reserve protects
Beringa protects some of the most important intact riparian (creekside) vegetation left in the area and its creek system is one of the best examples of a naturally saline waterway in the region. It also protects:
A Sun Orchid at Beringa Reserve. Photo Keith Smith.
Animals: Tammar Wallaby, Black-gloved Wallaby, Western Whipbird, Crested Bellbird, Malleefowl, Carnaby's cockatoo
Plants: Christmas tree, Cauliflower hakea, Chittick, Brown Mallet, Moort, Ongerup Orchid.
Vegetation communities: Flat-topped yate woodland, Moort woodland, Mallet woodland, Sheoak woodland, Mallee heath
What we’re doing
Feral animals such as foxes and cats are blamed for the loss of a number of native mammal species from this area and have left others, such as the Tammar and Black-gloved Wallabies, in a precarious position.
Dwarf Bearded Dragon on Beringa. Photo Chinch Gryniewicz.
By reducing feral predator numbers, via an integrated control program, we hope to vastly improve the chances of survival for our native fauna.
We're also restoring native bushland, and working towards reducing the impact of destructive wildfire.
Wallabies of Gondwana Link
The Tammar Wallaby was once so common in this part of Western Australia that it was a reliable food source for the local Noongar people.
A mother Tammar Wallaby with joey, captured on remote sensor camera.
Europeans also ate the wallaby, with reports from early last century of up to 40 animals being shot in one night. This poem illustrates just how common the Tammar Wallaby was.
Tammars young and Tammars old,
Tammars hot and Tammars cold,
Tammars tender, Tammars tough.
Thank the Lord we've got enough!*
Today though, habitat loss and feral predators have drastically reduced Tammar Wallaby numbers, and populations are now confined to pockets of bushland.
The Black-gloved Wallaby too has suffered population declines, and both species are now targeted for recovery through the Gondwana Link Wallaby Project.
The ultimate aim of the project is to increase populations of both species by removing foxes and making more habitat available. This will help the Tammar and Black-gloved Wallabies to once again be a common element in the ecosystem.
*Thanks to Neville Beeck for the poem.