The Southern Tablelands Temperate Grassland, formally Natural Temperate Grassland of the Southern Tablelands, is a

temperate grassland Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands are terrestrial biomes defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The predominant vegetation in these biomes consists of grass and/or shrubs. The climate is temperate and ranges from semi-arid to se ...

community situated in the

Southern Tablelands The Southern Tablelands is a geographic area of New South Wales, Australia, located south-west of Sydney and generally west of the Great Dividing Range. The area is characterised by high, flat country which has generally been extensively cl ...

and Monaro region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, extending into the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

and the Victorian border.Natural Temperate Grassland of the Southern Tablelands of NSW and the Australian Capital Territory.
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

. Retrieved 7 September 2022.Natural Temperate Grassland of the South Eastern Highlands - profile
Office of Environment & Heritage. Retrieved 7 September 2022. Listed as Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the grassland is dominated by reasonably tall, dense to open tussock grasses.National Recovery Plan for Natural Temperate Grassland of the Southern Tablelands (NSW and ACT): An Endangered Ecological Community
Environment ACT 2005 National Recovery Plan for Natural Temperate Grassland of the Southern Tablelands (NSW and ACT): an endangered ecological community (Environment ACT, Canberra). Retrieved 7 September 2022. Text was copied from this source, which is available unde
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Temperate Grassland new listing, definition; critically endangered
Conservation Council.org.au. Retrieved 7 September 2022.

Geography

The community is commonly present in the Southern Tablelands of NSW and ACT, where it covers areas such as,

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...

, Braidwood, Yass, Abercrombie River,

Boorowa Boorowa () is a farming village in the Hilltops Council, Hilltops Region in the South West Slopes, south west slopes of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in a valley southwest of Sydney around above sea-level. The town is in Hilltops C ...

, Jindabyne,

Bombala Bombala is a town in the Monaro, New South Wales, Monaro region of far southern New South Wales, Australia, in Snowy Monaro Regional Council. It is approximately south-southwest of the state capital, Sydney, and south of the town of Cooma, Ne ...

, south to the Victorian border at Delegate, on the eastern boundary of

Kosciuszko National Park The Kosciuszko National Park ( ) is a national park and contains mainland Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, for which it is named, and Cabramurra, New South Wales, Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia. Its borders contain a mix o ...

. The area features relatively low rainfall between 560 and 1200 metres in altitude, with low nutrient, highly textured soils on the valleys and low slopes (which grade with grassy woodland), and on the wider plains. 20 000 ha of natural temperate grassland was present in the ACT prior to European settlement and in NSW around 450 000 ha of grassland occurred. In the ACT there are four reserved sites that comprise a total area of 206 ha of grassland and in NSW there are two proposed nature reserves totaling around 200 ha. The region lies on broad plains with poor drainage and features cold air inversions that encourages frosts which suppresses tree growth. The scattered community is bounded by the

Snowy Mountains The Snowy Mountains, known informally as "The Snowies", is an IBRA subregion in southern New South Wales, Australia, and is the tallest mountain range in mainland Australia, being part of the continent's Great Dividing Range, a cordillera syste ...

and

Brindabella Range The Brindabella Range, commonly called The Brindabellas or The Brindies, is a mountain range located in Australia, on a state and territory border of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The range rises to the west of C ...

in the southwest, with he northwestern boundary passing from Burrinjuck Dam and to the

Lachlan River The Lachlan River (Wiradjuri: ''Kalari'', ''Galiyarr'') is an intermittent river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, located in the Southern Tablelands, Central West, and Riverina regions of New Sou ...

and north to Wyangala Dam.

Ecology

The area predominantly features moderately tall (25-50 cm) to tall (50 cm-1 m), thick to open tussock grasses, such as Bothriochloa macra, Themeda australis, Austrodanthonia spp., Austrostipa and

Poa ''Poa'' is a genus of about 570 species of Poaceae, grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass (mainly in Europe and Asia), bluegrass (mainly in North America), tussock (some New Zealand spe ...

spp with up to 70% of the species being forbs, which are namely daisies, lilies and native legumes. The grassland is generally treeless, though trees may be present in low densities (10%), either as sporadic individuals or in clusters, with the main tree species being Eucalyptus melliodora. Herbs,

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, rather than being intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is any different from the native plant, eve ...

s and forbs species include: *

Asperula conferta ''Asperula conferta'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is Australian endemic distributed across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory The Northern Territory ( ...

* Ajuga australis * Brachyloma daphnoides * Bulbine bulbosa * Carex inversa * Cheilanthes austrotenuifolia * Chrysocephalum apiculatum * Convolvulus erubescens * Craspedia variabilis * Cryptandra amara * Cymbonotus lawsonianus * Daviesia genistifolia * Desmodium varians * Dichondra repens * Dillwynia glaucula * Diuris chryseopsis * Diuris pedunculata * Dodonaea procumbens * Eryngium ovinum * Geranium solanderi * Hakea microcarpa * Hibbertia obtusifolia * Hymenanthera dentata * Leucochrysum albicans * Lissanthe strigosa * Lomandra filiformis * Melichrus urceolatus * Microtis unifolia *

Prasophyllum petilum ''Prasophyllum petilum'', commonly known as the Tarengo leek orchid, is a species of orchid endemic to eastern Australia. It has a single tubular, green leaf and up to eighteen pinkish mauve to greenish flowers, well-spaced along a slender flowe ...

* Rutidosis leptorrhynchoides * Schoenus apogon * Wahlenbergia communis * Wurmbea dioica

Animals

* Aprasia parapulchella * Coturnix ypsilophora * Delma impar * Gallinago hardwickii * Lampropholis delicata * Microseris lanceolata * Neobatrachus sudelli * Suta flagellum *

Synemon plana ''Synemon'' (commonly known as the Sun-moths) is a genus of moths within the family Castniidae. Edward Doubleday described it in 1846. The genus contains 24 described and 20 undescribed species. These species are found across mainland Australia a ...

* Tympanocryptis pinguicolla

References

{{Australasia grasslands navbox Grasslands of Australia Remnant urban bushland Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Environment of New South Wales Landforms of the Australian Capital Territory Ecoregions of New South Wales Endangered ecological communities