The Murchison is a loosely defined area of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

located within the interior of the Mid West region. It was the subject of a major gold rush in the 1890s and remains a significant mining district. The Murchison is also included as an interim Australian bioregion. The bioregion is loosely related to the catchment area of the Murchison River and has an area of .

Geography

The landscape is characterised by low hills and mesas, separated by

colluvium Colluvium (also colluvial material or colluvial soil) is a general name for loose, unconsolidated sediments that have been deposited at the base of hillslopes by either rainwash, Sheet erosion , sheetwash, slow continuous downslope creep, or a va ...

flats and alluvial plains. The western portion of the bioregion is drained by the upper Murchison and Wooramel rivers, which drain westwards towards the coast.Anthony Desmond, Mark Cowan and Alanna Chant (2001). "Murchison 2 (MUR2 – Western Murchison subregion)", in ''A Biodiversity Audit of Western Australia’s 53 Biogeographical Subregions in 2002''. The Department of Conservation and Land Management, Government of Western Australia, November 2001

/ref> Together with

Gascoyne bioregion Gascoyne is an interim Australian bioregion located in Western Australia. It has an area of . Together with Murchison bioregion to the south, it constitutes the Western Australian Mulga shrublands ecoregion, as assessed by the World Wildlife ...

, it constitutes the

Western Australian mulga shrublands The Western Australian Mulga shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of inland Western Australia. It is one of Australia's two mulga ecoregions, characterized by dry woodlands of mulga trees (''Acacia aneura'' and related species) ...

ecoregion. Population is scattered; the largest population centres are Meekatharra,

Mount Magnet Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

, and Leonora, with smaller mining and pastoral towns at Yalgoo,

Sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, Cue, Wiluna, and

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

Subregions

The Murchison bioregion has two subregions: * Eastern Murchison (MUR01) – * Western Murchison (MUR02) –

Political boundaries

Local government areas within the bioregion include the Shire of Yalgoo, the Shire of Mount Magnet, the Shire of Murchison, the Shire of Cue, the Shire of Sandstone, the Shire of Meekatharra, the Shire of Wiluna and the Shire of Leonora.

Climate

The climate is arid, with rainfall predominantly in the winter months.

Flora and fauna

The predominant plant community is low mulga woodlands and shrublands, characterized by mulga (''Acacia aneura''), with an understory of herbaceous ephemeral plants and bunchgrasses. Other plant communities include saltbush (''

Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and ...

'' spp.) shrubland on calcareous soils, low samphire (''

Tecticornia ''Tecticornia'' is a genus of succulent, salt tolerant plants largely endemic to Australia. Taxa in the genus are commonly referred to as samphires. In 2007, the genus ''Halosarcia'', along with three other Australian genera (''Pachycornia'', ' ...

'' spp.) shrubland on saline alluvium, and hummock grassland on red sandplains.

Land use

The Murchison is one of the main pastoral areas in Western Australia, dominated by large

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to Pastoral farming, graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Austral ...

s on

Crown land Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

operated as

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

and

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...

s. Mining (gold, iron and nickel) is the major contributor to the region's economy. There are extensive mining areas, with a large number of abandoned historical mining towns and settlements. The

Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder The ASKAP radio telescope is a radio telescope array located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Mid West region of Western Australia. The facility began as a technology demonstrator for the ...

radio telescope is located nearby, and was officially opened in October 2012."Outback Observatory open for business", ABC News, retrieved 7 October 2012 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-05/outback-observatory-open-for-business/4298094

Protected areas

Purchase of pastoral leases by the Western Australian Government increased the area set aside for conservation purposes from about 0.5% of the bioregion in 1998 to 6.7% in 2004. Protected areas include:Mark Cowan (2001). "Murchison 1 (MUR2 – Eastern Murchison subregion)", in ''A Biodiversity Audit of Western Australia’s 53 Biogeographical Subregions in 2002''. The Department of Conservation and Land Management, Government of Western Australia, November 2001

/ref> * Bullock Holes Timber Reserve * De La Poer Range Nature Reserve * Goongarrie National Park * Matuwa and Kurrara-Kurrara Indigenous Protected Area * Queen Victoria Spring Nature Reserve * Toolonga Nature Reserve * Wanjarri Nature Reserve

References

External links

Geological mapping of the region
{{coord missing, Western Australia Mid West (Western Australia) IBRA regions Western Australian mulga shrublands