Current view: Text account
Site description (2008 baseline):
Site location and context
The IBA is identical to Billiatt Conservation Park, which is located approximately 160 km east of Adelaide. The climate is semi-arid with mild to hot temperatures and mean annual rainfall of about 300 mm. The IBA is situated on undulating brown sands with mainly east-west oriented dunes, some clay flats and outcrops of lateritic gravel. It supports a mosaic of open mallee, mallee-heath and mallee-broombush scrub comprising various species of mallee (i.e. Ridge-fruit Mallee, Narrow-leaf Red Mallee, White Mallee, Beaked Red Mallee and Square-fruit Mallee) and Mallee Cypress Pine above an understorey of tea-tree, broombush, spinifex and sword-sedges. The IBA provides important habitat for several key mallee specialists, most notably the globally threatened Mallee Emu-wren and Malleefowl.
The IBA supports four nationally threatened species or subspecies: Malleefowl, Mallee Emu-wren, Red-lored Whistler and the mallee subspecies of Western Whipbird. The IBA also supports six species or subspecies that are listed as threatened in South Australia: Peregrine Falcon, Blue-winged Parrot and the eastern subspecies of Regent Parrot (both non-breeding visitors), Striated Grasswren and Shy Heathwren (both in significant numbers) and Chestnut Quail-thrush (Carpenter and Matthew 1986; Carpenter et al. 2003; Clarke 2005; A. Black in litt. 2009). Other records of interest include three Scarlet-chested Parrots in 1995 (Carpenter et al. 2003) and significant numbers of Southern Scrub-robin (Clarke 2005).
Non-bird biodiversity: The IBA contains a sizeable population (at least 1000 inviduals) of Williamson's Riceflower, which is listed as a rare species in South Australia. The IBA also contains populations of another six plant species that are uncommon in South Australia and another eight plant species that have been assigned a regional conservation rating. The IBA provides habitat for five butterfly species (Sciron Skipper, Cyprotus Blue, Black and White Skipper, Donnysa Skipper and Dirphia Skipper) which are listed as threatened in South Australia.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
A suitable fire management regime is essential to sustain key bird species.
The IBA is idential with the Billiatt Conservation Park which managed by the Department for Environment and Heritage. The IBA also contains the sites of five Heritage Agreements viz:- # 407-408, 504, 796 and 1044.
The nomination was compiled with the assistance of Jody Gates and Peter Cale.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Billiatt (Australia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/billiatt-iba-australia on 22/11/2024.
