CAPE RANGE AND NINGALOO REEF: A SEMI-ARID KARST AND COASTAL AREA UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Dennis Williamson1

Director, Geoscene International (A Division of Scenic Spectrums Pty Ltd)

and

Professor Elery Hamilton-Smith2

Past Chair, IUCN/WCPA Task Force on Caves and Karst

Abstract

The Ningaloo Coast Region of Western Australia is an extraordinary semi-arid karst and coral reef marine environment. The Gondwanan associated geomorphology of Western Australia’s Cape Range, with basic rocks of the coastline of the ancient Tethys Sea, reflects continental drift, subsequent uplifting and evidence of seven of thirteen global geologic themes as identified by Dingwall et al., 2005. Unusual tectonic plate subduction and orogeny processes have created an emergent landscape in which sea level changes over long periods are evident in four wave-cut terraces. Cape Range also has an extensive network of over 700 caves, mesocaverns and anastamosing tubes extending down to an anchialine groundwater zone. The earth’s history, paleoclimate and past life forms are recorded in a rich fossil and sub-fossil accumulation, particularly in relation to the Ningaloo Reef development as a near-shore barrier reef, not a “fringing” reef as thought until recently. An outstandingly rich array of on-going geomorphic, karst, hydrologic and oceanographic processes occur. These are associated with marine, avi-fauna, terrestrial and subterranean speciation, endemism and refugia processes. The Cape Range is a centre of endemism and a relictual taxa refuge for one of the world’s largest and most significant groups of terrestrial and aquatic troglobitic species surviving within a karst system, including the only known example of a Remipede (Lasionectes exleyi) community in the southern hemisphere. The Ningaloo Coast oceanic currents and nutrient cycles; marine flora and fauna speciation, endemism, refugia, breeding/spawning and migratory processes are also outstanding. The outcome is one of the world’s most unique and complex combinations of highly diverse lithological, hydrological and ecological processes. Although the authors are convinced of the area’s global significance, recognition of its values through adequate protected area status and management has been a slow process, with some way to go in the future.

1. Dennis Williamson is Director of Scenic Spectrums Pty Ltd, incorporating Geoscene International. Dennis holds qualifications in Geography (BA) and Landscape Architecture (MLA) and is one of Australia’s leading scenic resource specialists, with wide experience in the areas of natural resource management and tourism development planning. He is a Senior Fellow in the School of Design, University of Melbourne and has contributed nomination evidence to a number of currently listed UNESCO World Heritage Areas, including the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Fraser Island, the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and the Wulong Unit of the South China Karst Region. Dennis has recently prepared the Nullarbor Karst Interim Management Guidelines for the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation.

2. Professor Elery Hamilton-Smith, AM, has been an Honorary and/or Adjunct Professor at the International Centre of Excellence, University of Wageningen, Netherlands; at the Faculty of Health Sciences, LaTrobe University, Bundoora, Victoria; at the School of Information and Environmental Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury, N.S.W. He was also the Chair of Task Force on Caves and Karst, International Union for Conservation of Nature / World Commission on Protected Areas. He has contributed to the nomination assessment process of numerous World Heritage areas globally.

Article

Introduction

The Ningaloo Coast of Western Australia is on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List and will likely be nominated by the Australian Government during 2010. The Ningaloo Coast is the formal name for the nomination area extending southwards along the coast from the Muiron Islands and Northwest Cape. The area includes the Ningaloo Reef and the Cape Range. The Ningaloo Coast property has a total area of approximately 601,000 ha, (263,343 ha of Ningaloo Marine Park-State Waters), 28,616 ha of Muiron Islands Marine Management Area, 258,500 ha of Ningaloo Marine Park–Commonwealth Waters and 50,581 ha of Cape Range National Park (refer to Figure 1). The area predominantly occurs within the area of the Carnarvon – Ningaloo Coast Strategy (WA Dept. of Planning and Infrastructure, 2004 – refer to Figure 2.)

Elery Hamilton-Smith and Dennis Williamson were engaged by Commonwealth Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) to provide a comparative assessment of the Ningaloo Coast as background information to the nomination process.

The Assessment Process and Criteria

Two key considerations had considerable influence over the assessment:

Key World Heritage Natural Criteria included:

For each criterion the nominated property must represent:

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Figure 1 The Ningaloo Coast Nomination Area (Source: DEWHA, 2008)

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Figure 2 The Carnarvon – Ningaloo Coast Regional Strategy Area (Source: WA Dept. of Planning and Infrastructure, 2004)

International Comparisons

The Ningaloo Coast has been compared against 14 currently inscribed World Heritage Sites exhibiting karst and or coral reef environments and 8 other sites of world significance. These sites are mapped and listed in Figure 3.

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Figure 3 International Sites Used for Comparisons to the Ningaloo Coast (Source: Adapted from UNESCO World Heritage Commission Map of World Heritage Sites, 2008)

Criterion (vii) Assessment and Findings

World Heritage Guideline 1

World Heritage Guideline 1 calls for: “Natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding universal value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view”.

Fourteen Ningaloo Coast features were found to meet the above World Heritage guideline. Potential OUV themes noted following each feature or phenomenon as: A = Aesthetic; S = Scientific; E = Emblematic. Some of the key features that meet Guideline 1 include:

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Figure 4. Four Wave Cut Marine Terraces of Cape Range (Source: INQUA, 2006 – after van de Graff et al. 1976)

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Figure 5 Hydrogeology of Cape Range (Source: INQUA, 2006 – after Allen, 1993.)

World Heritage Guideline 2

World Heritage Guideline 2 calls for: “Geological and physiographical formations and precisely delineated areas which constitute the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation”.

Under Guideline 2, we would include Declared “Rare, Endangered, Threatened or Vulnerable” or “specially protected” species of animals and plants of the Ningaloo Coast property as noted below (refer to Kendrick and Mau, 2002 – 2002 Biodiversity Audit for WA – Carnarvon Bioregion: Cape Range Subregion - CAR1):

(Again, the potential OUV themes include: A = Aesthetic; S = Scientific; and E = Emblematic.)

Cape Range National Park is also of high conservation value floristically, containing many range-end populations of flora at the limit of heir distribution. Cape Range Peninsula lies at the overlap of three biogeographical zones, including species from temperate, arid and tropical provinces.

World Heritage Guideline 3

World Heritage Guideline 3 calls for: “Natural sites or precisely delineated natural areas of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty”.

Guideline 3 is satisfied by the features and phenomenon noted under Guidelines 1 and 2, including:

  1. The precisely delineated marine areas of the property include the following geological and physiographical formations constituting the habitat of threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value:
    • the West Australian, Leeuwin and Ningaloo Ocean Currents that create the outstanding conditions of water temperature ranges, salinity concentrations and nutrient transport within the property to support the diversity of coral, molluscs and fish, as well as the declared rare, threatened, endangered or specially protected species S;
    • complex intertidal and subtidal geomorphic features in ocean waters S;
  2. the Muiron Islands (continuation of Cape Range) are precisely delineated low, dome-shaped limestone islands. Displayed on the west are limestone cliffs, sandy beaches, intertidal rock platforms and seafloor slopes to continental shelf edge 30 km seaward. Displayed on the east are low dunes and sandy beaches gently sloping seaward with patch reefs and coral bommies, gradually levelling out into soft, muddy substrates. S, A;

  3. marine habitats and coral structures as delineated in Figs. 3 and 4 of the Management Plan for Ningaloo Marine Park and Muiron Islands Marine Management Area (CALM, 2005) and:

    • coral reef communities (intertidal, shallow/limestone and subtidal) S, A, E;
    • deep water mixed filter feeding and soft bottom communities S;
    • macroalgae (limestone reef) S;
    • pelagic water (deeper than 100 m) S;
    • shoreline and subtidal reefs (low relief – lagoonal and low relief – seaward) S, A;

  4. unusual and restricted terrestrial, marine and subterranean habitats including:

    • rock shelter areas providing habitat for small colonies of Rock Wallaby;
    • the nutrient rich mix of tropical and temperate water currents that attract the whale shark and a diversity of marine life;
    • mangal at Mangrove Bay and the aquifer in which blind aquatic fauna live S;

  5. Cape Range includes a complex system of karst landforms, including:

    • closed depressions S;
    • surface solution sculptures S;
    • sinkholes (e.g., Bundera Sinkhole) S, A, E;
    • shallow uvula S;
    • caves (including rock shelters, short horizontal caves, larger horizontal caves, vertical caves, caves of the coastal plains, protocaves and mesocaverns) S, A, E;
    • Tulki Limestone caps S;
    • biokarstic features (tufa accumulations and the Ningaloo Reef) S, A, E;

  6. hydrogeologic features and systems forming habitat for subterranean fauna:

    • Cape Range groundwater mound (freshwater) S;
    • karst aquifer system at crest of range (in Mandu Limestone) S;
    • internal drainage and cave openings on the crest of the range S;
    • drainage line infiltration. S.

World Heritage Guideline 4

World Heritage Guideline 4 calls for: “Cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity. As such, the permanent protection of this heritage is of the highest importance to the international community as a whole”.

Cultural significance is not assessed in this comparative analysis. Features of natural significance that would meet the criteria include:

  1. Ningaloo coral reef and lagoons (refer Guideline 1) S, A, E;
  2. exceptional diversity of visually vibrant marine life and species (refer Guideline 1) S, A, E;
  3. mass spawning of corals (refer Guideline 1) S, A, E;
  4. the Whale shark and other marine megafauna (refer Guideline 1) S, A, E;
  5. Cape Range Remipede Community at Bundera Sinkhole (refer Guideline 1) S, E;
  6. troglobitic and stygofauna communities on Northwest Cape (refer Guideline 1) S, E;
  7. the West Australian, Leeuwin and Ningaloo Ocean Currents that create the outstanding conditions and habitat for marine life (refer Guideline 2);
  8. Cape Range’s complex system of karst landforms and hydrogeologic features (refer Guideline 2) S;
  9. Declared “Rare, Endangered, Threatened or Vulnerable” or “specially protected” species of animals and plants of the Ningaloo Coast property (refer Guideline 2) S, A, E.

In relation to Guideline 1 and Guideline 4, common scenic attributes of Natural World Heritage Sites as has been noted by Scenic Spectrums (2007), include:

Highly scenic features and alterations are classified as:

Tunderwater terrain and substrate materials;

S – sessile organisms;

F – fish and mobile invertebrates;

M – mammals and megafauna;

W – sea water features and characteristics

A – alterations.

The scenic features are assessed according to their degree of occurrence:

The assessment showed that Ningaloo Reef stands on its own visually with its own magnificent array of sealife, including:

Cape Range taken on its own is not in the same league scenically as World Heritage Areas such as the Grand Canyon, the Protected Islands of the Gulf of California, Socotra, etc. and such areas as the Kimberley Ranges, the Bungle Bungles, the Olga Ranges, or the Western Tasmanian Wilderness. However, spectacular views are certainly available from various locations, including the Shothole Canyon and Charles Knife Canyon areas.

Figures 6 and 7 provide examples of some of the features noted under Guidelines 3 and 4 above.

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Figure 6 Flora and Fauna Species Biodiversity of Ningaloo Reef (Whale Shark, turtles, mana ray, fish spp. and coral spp.) (Sources: WA Dept. of Environment and Conservation and WA Tourism Commission websites, 2008)

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Figure 7 Shrub steppe and spinifex grassland vegetation of the Cape Range as displayed in the Shothole Canyon and Charles Knife Canyon areas (Sources: WA Dept. of Environment and Conservation and WA Tourism Commission websites, 2008)

Criterion (viii) Assessment and Findings

Outstanding or Superlative Examples of the Earth’s History

Five key conditions of Criterion (viii) are satisfied by the Ningaloo Coast’s display of outstanding or superlative examples of the earth’s history, including:

Global Geological Themes Represented

The Ningaloo Coast provides evidence of 7 of the 13 UNESCO Global Geologic Themes (Dingwall et al. 2005), including:

Our investigation has also revealed that Ningaloo Reef is not predominantly a “fringing reef” as has been commonly assumed and reported in many previous reports and publications. Ningaloo Reef totals approx. 282 km length with approximately 223 km of near-shore "barrier" reef (or what some marine scientists may refer to as a “bank barrier reef” and approximately 59 km of "fringing reef”.

This is demonstrated through the standard definitions of reef types (http://www.coris.noaa.gov/about/ what_are/ - v Reference:%20Intro%20to%20Marine%20Ecology and http://www.starfish.ch/reef/ reef.html). It is also illustrated by HyMap satellite image baythymetric map by Heege (2008) of Ningaloo Reef near Yardie Creek Australia, 2005 and through photographs and illustrations published by Collins, et. al. (2002, 2003 and 2006a). However, Ningaloo is a globally substantial coral reef of very high quality by world standards and the only significant reef on a western edge of a continent (S, A, E).

Criterion (ix) and Criterion (x) Assessment and Findings

Ecological/Biological Processes and In Situ Species and Biodiversity Themes

Criterion (ix) and (x) pertain to the ecological and biological processes and to the in situ species/biodiversity themes. Our findings show that the Ningaloo Coast meets these two criteria on the basis of the following processes and themes:

Cape Range is one of the most outstanding examples in the world of an arid karst site with high biodiversity and examples of species originating from the Tethyan Ocean. Regarding the subterranean and anchialine environments of Cape Range, only two sites within the classic Dinaric karst of similar quality and integrity to the Cape Range exist – Postojna-Planina and Vjetrenica.

Integrity

The Ningaloo Coast nomination property satisfies the UNESCO conditions for integrity in the following ways:

  1. The elements and the natural processes are highly intact and either relatively unaltered or capable of effective rehabilitation;

  2. The natural threats to Ningaloo Reef or anthropogenic problems have generally been (or certainly could be) obviated by proper management practice;

  3. However, impacts of petroleum and gas extraction, mining, pastoral grazing, feral animals, pest plants and recreation/tourism do exist; and

  4. Regarding integrity, significant features and processes of the four natural criteria could be further enhanced and more fully contain superlative features, phenomenon and processes of outstanding universal value associated with the property as a World Heritage Site.

We have considered the aspect of “integrity” requiring a property to “contain all or most of the significant natural elements and processes”. Although the current nomination boundaries undoubtedly contain many features and processes of World Heritage value and quality, some additional areas, features and processes that should be considered for inclusion or more extensive representation include:

In terms of integrity and infrastructure, the area must be:

The proposed boundaries do not fully comply with conditions of integrity as defined in the Operational Guidelines (UNESCO, 2008):

Although the important areas excluded at this time certainly do not diminish the universal outstanding value of those elements and processes that are included within the nominated property, they are of serious concern.

The current physical and functional integrity of the main geomorphic and physiographic elements and processes are exhibited within the nominated property and can generally be adequately conserved and monitored under joint World Heritage and regional authority co-operation.

Most coral reefs are seriously threatened (Cao and Caldeira, 2008; Walsh, 2008). Many are in poor condition in comparison to the near pristine condition of Ningaloo Reef. In addition, karst cave and mesocavern systems, such as those at Cape Range area, are extremely vulnerable to adverse human impacts. For these reasons, core area boundaries and buffer zones adequate to protect these resources should be the first step in ensuring appropriate protection and conservation management. Strong management is also vital to maintenance of positive health of coral reef systems.

Summary Conclusions

The nominated Ningaloo Coast property satisfies all four of the natural criteria for World Heritage inscription and compares highly with other similar karst and coral reef areas throughout the world.

However, there are important concerns about integrity and the inadequacy of the nominated property boundaries in terms of the core zone and the need for designated and regulated buffer zones as viewed within the context of the World Heritage Commission’s (2008) Operational Guidelines.

Contacts

Key contacts regarding the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage nomination property include:


3.Mesocavernous limestone is produced by freshwater permeating the rock, so it usually occurs at the junction between rock beds or along the joints. But at Cape Range, given the distinctive character of the rock, it extends throughout almost the whole of the limestone, resulting in a spectrum of microclimates which in turn fosters the remarkable speciation which has taken place, as discussed under Criterion (ix) and Criterion (x) below.

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CALM, (2005). Management Plan for Ningaloo Marine Park and Muiron Islands Marine Management Area: 2005 – 2015. Management Plan Number 52. Prepared for Marine Parks and Reserves Authority Department of Conservation and Land Management.

Cao, L. and K. Caldeira, (2008). Atmospheric CO2 stabilisation and ocean acidification. Geophysical Research Letters.

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