Pindan is a name given to the red-soil country of the south-western Kimberley region of Western Australia. The term comes from a local language and applies both to the soil and to the vegetation community associated with it. [1]
Pindan is a name given to the red-soil country of the south-western Kimberley region of Western Australia. The term comes from a local language and applies both to the soil and to the vegetation community associated with it. [1]
The word “pindan” was first mentioned in print in 1883 by Mr Edward Townley Hardman (1845 1887) in a preliminary appendix to John Forrest’s report on the Kimberley. He stated:
“The only metalliferous deposits as yet observed by me are pindan ironstone, a poor hematite, but in large quantity; and in the Fitzroy gravels, quantities of minute dark heavy grains, which have all the appearance of stream tin. These await further chemical examination, In these gravels, opal, cats-eye, garnet, and amethyst occur, all of inferior quality so far as at present observed. [2]
The 1891 report on the General Description and Physical Geography of the Kimberley District by Government Geologist Harry Page Woodward described the Pliocene geological formation as pindan sands and gravel, often cemented by oxide of iron:
"These sandy soils are largely developed on either side of the Fitzroy River, stretching far away to the Southward, where they form Warburton’s Great Sandy Desert; they are, as a rule, waterless; but, owing to the large rainfall, produce a large quantity of vegetation. On the Ord River there are some small stretches of this country, but never of any great extent." [3]
Pindan country is geographically restricted to Dampierland, including the Dampier Peninsula and its hinterland, the area around Broome and Roebuck Bay, and a coastal strip extending south-westwards from Roebuck Bay adjacent to Eighty Mile Beach. It is semiarid with a tropical monsoonal climate of hot, wet summers and mild, dry winters. The flat, or gently undulating, land lacks prominent landmarks and is easy to get lost in. [1] The soils are usually red and sandy with a high clay content, low in nutrients, and susceptible both to drought and to waterlogging when wet. [4] [5]
Botanically the pindan forms a transitional zone between the wetter monsoon forests of the north Kimberley and the Great Sandy Desert to the south-east, exhibiting a mix of monsoonal and arid species. Structurally it is a low and open woodland of scattered trees, dominated by wattles, with eucalypts and tall shrubs. The understorey contains grasses and herbs. During the long dry season from April to November the annual plants and grasses die off, the country looks parched, and regular wildfires leave stretches of bare and blackened soil, studded with dead shrubs. During the short wet season from December to March there is profuse flowering of the diverse pindan flora, with a wide variety of insects and other animals taking advantage of the seasonal abundance. [1]
On higher ground, pindan adopts a more open savanna structure while, on low-lying ground subject to waterlogging during the wet season, paperbarks begin to displace the other trees. Canopy height ranges from 3 m to 8 m; the trees are short and deep-rooted, often with the trunks bent or twisted. In his 1926 book “In Savage Australia” Norwegian explorer Knut Dahl described the pindan as a “crippled forest” in response to the apparent uniformity and stunted appearance of the vegetation. [1]
Typical species of trees and tall shrubs in pindan vegetation are the wattles Acacia eriopoda , A. tumida , A. monticola , A. platycarpa , A. colei , and A. adoxa , and the eucalypts Corymbia greeniana , C. flavescens and C. zygophylla . Other plants include Grevillea wickhamii and G. refracta , Gyrocarpus americanus , Terminalia petiolaris , Lysiphyllum cunninghamii , Ventilago viminalis , Premna acuminata , Hakea microcarpa , Persoonia falcata , Atalaya hemiglauca , Gardenia pyriformis , Pavetta kimberleyana , Carissa lanceolata , Dodonaea hispidula , Ehretia saligna and Santalum lanceolatum . [6] [7]
Many savanna animals, such as agile wallabies and red-winged parrots reach their southern limits in Western Australia in the strip of pindan that parallels the coast along Eighty Mile Beach. [1]
Broome, also known as Rubibi by the Yawuru people, is a coastal, pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, 1,681 km (1,045 mi) north of Perth. The urban population was 14,445 in June 2018 growing to over 45,000 per month during the peak tourist season.
The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, and on the east by the Northern Territory.
Tropical climate is one of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification. Tropical climates are characterized by monthly average temperatures of 18 ℃ (64.4 ℉) or higher year-round and feature hot temperatures. Annual precipitation is often abundant in tropical climates, and shows a seasonal rhythm to varying degrees. There are normally only two seasons in tropical climates, a wet season and a dry season. The annual temperature range in tropical climates is normally very small. Sunlight is intense.
Roebuck Bay is a bay on the coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Its entrance is bounded in the north by the town of Broome, and in the south by Bush Point and Sandy Point. It is named after HMS Roebuck, the ship captained by William Dampier when he explored the coast of north-western Australia in 1699. The Broome Bird Observatory lies on the northern coast of the bay.
Eighty Mile Beach, also spelled Eighty-mile Beach or 80-mile Beach, lies along the north-west coast of Western Australia about half-way between the towns of Broome and Port Hedland. It is a beach some 220 kilometres (140 mi) in length, forming the coastline where the Great Sandy Desert approaches the Indian Ocean. It is one of the most important sites for migratory shorebirds, or waders, in Australia, and is recognised as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
The Dampier Peninsula is a peninsula located north of Broome and Roebuck Bay in Western Australia. It is surrounded by the Indian Ocean to the west and north, and King Sound to the east. It is named after the mariner and explorer William Dampier who visited it. The northernmost part of the peninsula is Cape Leveque. It is sparsely inhabited, mostly by Indigenous Australian peoples, some of whom have been granted native title rights to some of their traditional lands. There are many coastal inlets, bays and other features, including Beagle Bay on its western side.
Western Australia occupies nearly one third of the Australian continent. Due to the size and the isolation of the state, considerable emphasis has been made of these features; it is the second largest administrative territory in the world, after Yakutia in Russia, despite the fact that Australia is only the sixth largest country in the world by area, and no other regional administrative jurisdiction in the world occupies such a high percentage of a continental land mass. It is also the only first level administrative subdivision to occupy the entire continental coastline in one cardinal direction.
The Yawuru, also spelt Jawuru, are an Indigenous Australian people of Western Australia.
The Arnhem Land tropical savanna is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in Australia's Northern Territory.
The Kimberley tropical savanna is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in northwestern Australia, covering portions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory south of the Timor Sea.
The Victoria Plains tropical savanna is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion in northwestern Australia.
The Ord River floodplain is the floodplain of the lower Ord River in the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. It lies within the Victoria Bonaparte IBRA bioregion and contains river, seasonal creek, tidal mudflat and floodplain wetlands, with extensive stands of mangroves, that support saltwater crocodiles and many waterbirds. It is recognised as an internationally important wetland area, with 1,384 km2 of it designated on 7 June 1990 as Ramsar Site 477 under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Acacia tumida, known colloquially as pindan wattle, spear wattle or wongai, is a species of Acacia native to northern and western Australia.
Acacia eriopoda, commonly known as the Broome pindan wattle and the narrow-leaf pindan wattle, is a species of wattle in the legume family that is native to northern Western Australia. It is also known as Yirrakulu to the Nyangumarta peoples.
Acacia platycarpa, commonly known as the pindan wattle or ghost wattle, is a species of plant in the legume family that is native to northern Australia from Western Australia through the Northern Territory to Queensland.
Premna acuminata, commonly known as the firestick tree, or ngalinginkil in the Bardi language, is a species of plant in the mint family. It is native to northern Australia where it occurs from Western Australia through the Northern Territory to Queensland.
Acacia drepanocarpa is a shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Juliflorae native to northern Australia.
Acacia anaticeps, also known as duck-headed wattle, is a shrub or tree of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves. It is native to arid areas of north western Australia.
The 2018 Broome flood was a severe flood that occurred in January and February 2018 in and around Broome in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Roebuck Plains Station is a pastoral lease that is located close to the township of Broome in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is one of the closest pastoral leases to Broome.