Myall Creek Wattle - profile

Scientific name: Acacia atrox 
 Conservation status in NSW: Endangered

Description

Myall Creek Wattle is a dense shrub 0.5 - 1.5 m tall with creamy or pale yellow flowers and a twisted green-brown stem. The entire plant is covered in spiny, light green to blue-green leaves, 2 - 4 cm long and 1 - 1.2 mm wide. It flowers sporadically throughout the year, with flowers clustered into ball-shaped heads and paired flower heads on each stem. This wattle was only discovered in 2000, and the pods and seeds have not been seen. It appears to reproduce through root suckers.

Location and habitat

Distribution
 Myall Creek Wattle is known only from a single population about 30 km west of Inverell on the North West Slopes of NSW.

• Myall Creek Wattle grows in deep clay soils on basalt on the upper slope and crest of a low hill. The one known population occurs in a partly cleared paddock in box woodland with a native grassy understorey.

Regional information
This species is found in the following catchment management authority regions. Click on a region name to see more details about the distribution, vegetation types and habitat preference of the species in that region.

• Border Rivers/Gwydir

Threats

• Clearing of habitat for agriculture and pasture improvement.
• Frequent fires. As the Myall Creek Wattle may survive only through root suckers, fire has the potential to wipe out this species.
• Trampling by domestic stock.
• Risk of extinction due to small, restricted population.

Recovery strategies

Priority actions are the specific, practical things that must be done to recover a threatened species, population or ecological community. The Department of Environment and Conservation has identified 7 priority actions to help recover the Myall Creek Wattle in New South Wales.

What needs to be done to recover this species?

• Protect known population and areas of potential habitat from frequent fire.
• Protect known population from trampling by stock.
• Protect known population and areas of potential habitat from clearing and pasture improvement.
• Report new records of Myall Creek Wattle to the DEC.

References

• NPWS (2003). Threatened Species of the New England Tablelands and North West Slopes of NSW. NPWS, Coffs Harbour.
• NSW Scientific Committee (2001) Acacia atrox (a tall shrub) - Endangered species determination - final. DEC (NSW), Sydney.