Victoria Plains tropical savanna facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Victoria Plains tropical savanna
Purnululu National Park, Western Australia
Ecology
Realm	Australasian
Biome	tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Borders	Carpentaria tropical savanna, Great Sandy-Tanami desert, Kimberley tropical savanna, and Mitchell Grass Downs
Geography
Area	223,982 km2 (86,480 sq mi)
Country	Australia
States	Northern Territory and Western Australia
Conservation
Conservation status	Vulnerable
Protected	16,001 km² (7%)

The Victoria Plains tropical savanna is a special natural area in northwestern Australia. It's a type of ecoregion with lots of grasslands and scattered trees, like a mix between a forest and a wide-open field. This area is known for its unique plants and animals.

Where is the Victoria Plains Savanna?

This amazing ecoregion is mostly in the central Northern Territory. It also stretches into the northeastern part of Western Australia. Think of it as a bridge between the hot, wet savannas in northern Australia and the dry deserts in the middle of the country.

One famous landmark here is the Bungle Bungle Range. This range has amazing beehive-shaped rock formations. The Victoria Plains savanna is surrounded by other natural areas. To the northwest and north, you'll find the Kimberley tropical savanna. To the northeast and east, it borders the Carpentaria tropical savanna. The Mitchell Grass Downs are to the southeast. If you go south, you'll reach the Great Sandy-Tanami desert.

The western part of this ecoregion is called the Ord Victoria Plain. It gets its water from the upper parts of the Ord and Victoria rivers.

Special Natural Areas (IBRA Regions)

The Victoria Plains tropical savanna includes two important natural areas. These are the Ord Victoria Plain and the Sturt Plateau. They are part of a system that helps describe Australia's different natural regions.

What's the Weather Like?

The Victoria Plains tropical savanna has a tropical savanna climate. This means it has two main seasons: a wet season and a dry season.

During the wet season, from November to March, the monsoon brings a lot of rain. This is when the plants grow quickly. The dry season lasts for the rest of the year, and it hardly rains at all.

Temperatures are usually warm or hot. The average highest temperatures range from 25 to 35 degrees Celsius. The amount of rain changes across the region. It gets about 1200 mm of rain per year in the north. In the south, it's drier, with only about 600 mm of rain per year. Some mountain areas get more rain than others.

Plants of the Savanna

The main types of plants you'll see here are woodlands with grass underneath, savannas (scattered trees with grass), and open grasslands. The types of plants depend on the soil and how much rain an area gets.

The most common plant community is made up of eucalypt trees and bloodwood trees. These trees usually grow on sandy or loamy soils. They form a canopy, or tree cover, that is 5 to 15 meters high. Below them, you'll find tall grasses like Sorghum, Heteropogon, Themeda, Chrysopogon, Aristida, and Eriachne.

On clay soils, you might see open woodlands of Terminalia and Bauhinia trees. These areas also have grasslands with different types of grasses. Some of these grasses include Astrebla, Iseilema, Chrysopogon, Aristida, and Dichanthium.

If you visit areas with sandstone rocks, you'll find open eucalypt woodlands. These have a different type of grass underneath called hummock grasses (Triodia species). Another plant community on sandstone is heathland. This area is full of shrubs like Grevillea and Acacia.

Lancewood-Bullwaddy Woodlands

A very special plant community here is the lancewood-bullwaddy woodland. These woodlands are mostly found on red, iron-rich soils in the eastern Sturt Plateau. They are dominated by two trees: lancewood (Acacia shirleyi) and bullwaddy (Macropteranthes kekwickii).

Bullwaddy trees are special because they lose their leaves in the dry season. They can grow up to six meters tall. These woodlands can be very dense, forming thickets that are hard to walk through. They have many climbing vines. The ground underneath has fewer tall grasses and more small plants, ferns, and mosses.

These woodlands are important because they are more sensitive to fire than the eucalypt woodlands. They also act as safe places for many plant species that don't like fire. Some of these plants are similar to those found in Australia's rainforests.

Plants Along Rivers

Along rivers and streams, you'll find special forests called riparian forests. These narrow strips of trees include river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), Terminalia platyphylla, Nauclea orientalis, and different types of Ficus, Melaleuca, and Pandanus trees.

Animals of the Savanna

The Victoria Plains tropical savanna is home to many interesting animals.

Mammals of the Savanna

Native mammals include the spectacled hare-wallaby (Lagorchestes conspicillatus). These wallabies are especially common in the dense lancewood-bullwaddy thickets. The northern nailtail wallaby (Onychogalea unguifera) lives in grasslands and eucalypt woodlands.

Other mammals you might see are the agile wallaby (Macropus agilis) and the common wallaroo (Osphranter robustus). You might also spot the antilopine kangaroo (Osphranter antilopinus). Smaller mammals include the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), rock-haunting ringtail possum (Petropseudes dahli), and the sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps).

Birds of the Savanna

Some birds prefer the lancewood-bullwaddy woodlands. These include the apostlebird (Struthidea cinerea), the hooded robin (Melanodryas cucullata picata), and the grey-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis rubeculus). These birds look for insects and other small creatures on the ground. They find their food in the leaf litter and bare ground found in these special woodlands.

Reptiles and Amphibians

The black-tailed goanna (Varanus tristis) is a native lizard found here. You might also hear the giant frog (Ranoidea australis), which is also native to this ecoregion.

Protecting the Savanna

The Victoria Plains tropical savanna has faced challenges, especially from grazing animals. Starting in the 1880s, many cattle were allowed to roam freely. They ate the lush grasses and drank from the water sources. By the 1930s, too many cattle and wild donkeys, along with more bushfires in the late dry season, damaged large areas. This led to bare ground and soil erosion.

To help fix this, the Ord River Regeneration Reserve (ORRR) was created in 1960. Its goal was to stop soil from washing into the planned Lake Argyle. This project involved planting new seeds and improving the land along the Ord River. The number of cattle was reduced, and fences were put up to control where they grazed. Wild donkeys were also removed from the area.

In 1987, the beautiful area around the Bungle Bungle Range became Purnululu National Park. This helped protect its unique landscape.

Protected Areas Today

A study in 2017 showed that about 7% of the ecoregion is now protected. This covers about 16,001 square kilometers. Some of the protected areas in the Victoria Plains tropical savanna include:

• Purnululu National Park
• Bullwaddy Conservation Reserve
• Ord River Regeneration Reserve
• The eastern and southern parts of Gregory National Park