Within our Council area large parts of vegetation has been subject to comprehensive clearance and disturbance for agriculture and urban development. Within Alexandrina Council’s boundaries, less than 12% of the original vegetation remains, and only 2% of the pre-European extent of high value native vegetation. Mallee and woodland areas are now particularly under-represented in our region.
Only a few fragmented patches of native vegetation remain, contained on both private and public land, and along our roadsides. As these parcels are small in area and/or linear in shape they are very susceptible to threats such as weeds, pest animals, diseases, and disturbance.
Our most significant patches of remnant vegetation include nature reserves, like the Goolwa Dune System; our Roadside Marker System sites that protects remnant native vegetation protected under Native Vegetation Act, our river and lakeside reserves, and unmade road reserves.
Council’s Nature Conservation Team looks after over 300 hectares of natural areas, including more than 50 hectares of Native Vegetation Heritage Agreement areas, and almost 300 kilometres of roadsides for the benefit of nature conservation.
Some of these areas are also covered by a Heritage Agreement and/or a Significant Environmental Benefit (SEB) Management Plan. These are often managed in partnership with Council’s third-party conservation partnerships, such as the Hills and Fleurieu Landscape SA, the Second Nature Conservancy (formerly known as the Goolwa to Wellington Land Action Planning Association, GWLAP), and local Landcare and Coastcare groups.
To protect and enhance our native flora and fauna we prioritise the location and level of biodiversity management in accordance with the following hierarchy:
- the protection, maintenance, and then enhancement of remnant vegetation with its flora and fauna
- restoring sites that have been degraded
- revegetating open space to reconstruct habitat elements that have been lost (i.e. buffers, corridors, verges, and urban greening).
Council focuses on collaboration with community conservation and natural resource management groups to ensure that our collective resources are used for the greatest impact. We also apply land use planning and development controls to protect remnant vegetation on Council and privately owned land.