Lakes Muncoonie, Mumbleberry and Torquinie (24829)
Australia, Australasia

Site overview

KBA status: confirmed

Global KBA criteria: B1, D1a

Year of last assessment: 2009

National site name: Lakes Muncoonie, Mumbleberry and Torquinie

Central coordinates: Latitude: -24.8675, Longitude: 138.7003

System: freshwater, terrestrial

Elevation (m): 45 to 75

Area of KBA (km²): 2059.62417

KBA classification: Global

Legacy site: Yes

Site details

Site description: The IBA consists of Lakes Muncoonie, Mumbleberry and Torquinie, and associated swampy floodplain of Eyre Creek and Mulligan River, approximately 80 km west of Bedourie in western Queensland. It is defined as the Muncoonie Lakes area, as defined in the Directory of Important Wetlands, extending through ephemeral floodplain of the Eyre Creek through Lake Torquinie to Mumbleberry Lake, including Flooded Trees North. Lakes Torquninie and Mumbleberry have had annual aerial waterbird surveys and have been amongst the four most important wetland systems counted in surveys across south-east Australia in 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997 (with about 180,000 waterbirds) and 2001. The IBA is extended to include the Muncoonie system for which there is only patchy data, but which is believed to support significant numbers (e.g. 47,300 waterbirds on the Muncoonie-Selicia Lakes cluster in December 2001) and small breeding colonies of waterbirds (e.g. a colony on Eyre Creek upstream of the lakes held over 1000 breeding pairs of at least six species in 2001). The intervening Eyre Creek floodplains include more waterbird colonies and extensive floodplains. Systematic aerial estimates of waterbirds in these floodplains in March 2001 (a huge flood year) were in the order of 500,000 waterbirds, which implies over 1 million waterbirds. Torquinie and Mumbleberry are ephemeral saline lakes (fresh when first flooded) that are inundated most years. The lakes are situated on deep grey and grey-brown clays and are bordered by the longitudinal sand dunes of the Simpson Desert. The Muncoonie Lakes system is a vast area of floodplains, low-lying swamps, anastomosing channels, permanent waterholes and playa lakes, fresher than the other lakes. Each of the lakes fills several years out of ten years and dries out within 6-18 months, becoming increasingly saline

Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site qualifies as a Key Biodiversity Area of international significance that meets the thresholds for at least one criterion described in the Global Standard for the Identification of KBAs.

Additional biodiversity: The IBA has supported more than 184,000 waterbirds (Kingsford et al. 2000). The Banded Stilt occurred in significant numbers in 1991 (5,000), but not in 1992 (300), 1995 (2300) or 1997 (1951) (Kingsford et al. 1992, 1993, 1997). Hardhead have exceeded the population 1% threshold once with 11,744 birds in 1997, but only sub-threshold numbers were recorded in 1991 (about 5300), 1992 (4300), 1995 (3400) and 2001 (3687; Kingsford et al. 1992, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003). The Pacific Black Duck occurred in substantial but sub-threshold numbers in 1997 (3997) and 2001 (2851); similarly, 3225 Australian Wood Duck and 6333 Australian Pelicans in 2001. Regionally significant numbers of Glossy Ibis have been recorded including 10,587 in 2001 and 6338 in 1997 at Torquinie, and 6857 in 1997 and 3081 in 1995 at Mumbleberry; and Great Crested Grebe including 6981 in 1992 and 3760 in 1995 at Torquinie (Kingsford & Porter 2006); and Purple Swamphen including 16,477 in 1997 (Kingsford et al. 2000) although these counts are very high for the habitat and location and may refer to extrapolations from small counted areas (R. Jaensch & J. Reid in litt. 2008). Breeding birds in March 2001 included Straw-necked Ibis, Great Egret and small numbers of Pied Heron (Jaensch et al. 2005). Terrestrial species recorded in the IBA, but whose status is poorly known, include the near threatened Grey Falcon (1 over Lake Selicea during AridFlo aerial survey in 2001; J. Reid in litt. 2009) and Australian Bustard and biome-restricted Rufous-crowned Emu-wren (Atlas of Australian Birds database).

Other site values: Leasehold. Land-owner's permission is needed to access most of this privately-managed IBA.

Habitats

Land use: rangeland/pastureland (100%)

IUCN Habitat	Coverage %	Habitat detail
Shrubland	48
Savanna	5
Wetlands(Inland)	48

Threats

Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: Potential over-grazing and erosion around waterholes.

Threat level 1	Threat level 2	Threat level 3	Timing
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching	Agro-industry grazing, ranching or farming	Ongoing
Natural system modifications	Dams & water management/use	Abstraction of surface water (unknown use)	Only in the future

Additional information

References: Costelloe, J.F., Hudson, P.J., Pritchard, J.C., Puckridge, J.T. and Reid, J.R.W. (2004) ARIDFLO Scientific Report: Environmental Flow Requirements of Arid Zone Rivers with Particular Reference to the Lake Eyre Drainage Basin. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide. Final Report to South Australian Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation and Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage. DEWHA (2007) Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia. Downloaded from http://www.environment.gov.au/water/publications/environmental/wetlands/database/ on 26 September 2007. Jaensch, R., Reid, J. and Ellis, R. (2005) Sightings and breeding of Pied Heron Ardea picata in the Queensland Channel Country, 1999-2004. Sunbird 35: 6-12. Kingsford, R.T., Ferster Levy, R. and Porter, J.L. (1993) An Aerial Survey of Wetland Birds in Eastern Australia-October 1992. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Occasional Paper 16. Hurstville: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Kingsford, R. and Porter, J. (2006) Eastern Australian aerial survey database. Accessed 2006. Kingsford, R.T., Porter, J.L. and Ahern, A.D. (2003) Aerial Surveys of Wetland Birds in Eastern Australia-October 2000-2002. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Occasional Paper 33. Hurstville: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Kingsford, R.T., Porter, J.L., Ahern, A.D. and Davis, S.T. (2000) Aerial Surveys of Wetland Birds in Eastern Australia-October 1996-1999. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Occasional Paper 31. Hurstville: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Kingsford, R.T., Porter, J.L. and Ferster Levy, R. (1992) An Aerial Survey of Wetland Birds in Eastern Australia-October 1991. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Occasional Paper 12. Hurstville: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. Kingsford, R.T., Tully, S. and Davis, S.T. (1997) Aerial Surveys of Wetland Birds in Eastern Australia-October 1994 and 1995. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Occasional Paper 26. Hurstville: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.