Shortest Field Trip Ever

Trip 5: Perth to Minjar Gold Mine via Rothsay Grave

Purpose: Declared Rare Flora and Threatened Fauna Survey

Total Distance Traveled: 1007 km
Distance Traveled Year to Date: 11,623 km 

No mining operation is ever approved by the State or Federal Government without at least one or two commitments to ongoing environmental management. Were that not the case, I would pretty quickly be out of a job and singing for my supper: one can't consult or advise if there is nothing to consult or advise on. 

Poor consultancy sometimes leads to commitments are ill-advised and onerous and they achieve very little for the environment and leave a foul taste in the mouth of the proponent who is obliged to honor that commitment year after interminable year. But for the most part, well conceived and constructed commitments generated by sound environmental practitioners can go a long way to reducing the total cumulative impact of mining on the environment.

As an example, one of Animal Plant Mineral's clients is obliged to undertake relatively intense grid searches of any ground forecast for disturbance because most of their tenements covere areas known to support Declared Rare Flora. They commission us to search for this cute little plant called Stylidium scinterlans or the Glistening Trigger Plant. I normally struggle to get enthused about plants, but this is a special little thing; it is magical and it really does glisten in the sun like it has been smothered in pixie dust. It only grows in a very, very specific microhabitat in the appropriate soil type, on the appropriate land form with the right aspect and very precise drainage. When one finds a population it is pretty difficult (even as a hardened field hack) not to jump up and down like a pre-schooler, giggling softly and doing fairy claps.

So when I got the call the other day to get into the truck and drive the 500km to site to walk some proposed drill lines I most happily obliged. What was particularly interesting about this commissioning was that the search area comprised three drill lines not much more than 200m long. Based on the accepted methodology for grid searching this comprised a total walking distance of as near as makes no difference to 2km! Even more epic, was that they welcomed two ECU Conservation Biology Grads (Sarah Flemington and Alannah Rowe) along to the mine, accommodated and fed them, inducted them and then allowed them to assist with the survey.

We did not find any Fairy Dust Plants but we did find evidence of a bush chook: otherwise known as the EPBC Act (1999) Listed Vulnerable Malleefowl and the Grads did get to see some amazing trapdoor spider burrows.

Nearly 12 hours driving for less than one hour of work. Am I complaining? Hell no!! Where to next?