Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2011L01416:body:0:p10
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2011L01416
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 25113–28639

can be applied to the management of cane toads in a way that would lead to containment and/or eradication of cane toads across their range. However, the Australian Government has a responsibility to manage cane toads on land under its control and where Matters of National Environmental Significance are being impacted by cane toads. Objective 1 addresses the identification of those species and ecological communities at risk from the impact of cane toads.

Ecological communities
There are eight threatened ecological communities listed under the EPBC Act that fall within the current geographic range of the cane toad (Table 2).

       Table 2: EPBC Act listed threatened ecological communities within the current cane toad range.

Ecological community                                                                                         EPBC category          Recovery plan comment
Swamp Tea-tree (Melaleuca irbyana) Forest of South-east Queensland                                           Critically Endangered
Mabi Forest (Complex Notophyll Vine Forest 5b)                                                               Critically Endangered
White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely's Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland                          Critically Endangered
Littoral Rainforest and Coastal Vine                                                                         Critically Endangered
Thickets of Eastern Australia
Natural Grasslands of the Queensland Central Highlands and the northern Fitzroy Basin                        Endangered
Semi-evergreen vine thickets of the Brigalow Belt (North and South) and Nandewar Bioregions                  Endangered             "considered responsible for a recent abrupt decline in observations of the northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus". (McDonald 2010)
The community of native species dependent on natural discharge of groundwater from the Great Artesian Basin  Endangered             "under high population densities, such as those that occur with the hatching of a clutch of toadlets, may have a very deleterious effect on invertebrate populations". (Fensham et al. 2010)
Weeping Myall Woodlands                                                                                      Endangered
Brigalow (Acacia harpophylla dominant and co-dominant)                                                       Endangered

Currently, none of the listing advices for these communities indicate that cane toads are a threat to the community. Further, no other listed ecological communities fall within the predicted future range of cane toads (as shown in Figure 1 Kearney et al. 2008). However, elements of some of the listed communities are impacted, or may in future be impacted, by cane toads as they continue to spread. As shown in Table 2, two of the recovery plans in place for these ecological communities mention cane toads and their possible impacts.

Kearney et al. (2008) used the software package Ozclim (CSIRO, Australia) to derive predictions for changes in monthly maximum and minimum air temperature and relative humidity, as well as mean monthly rainfall by 2050. Under this anticipated climate change scenario for Australia, both expansions and contractions in the potential range of the cane toad and in the length of the toads' breeding season have been predicted for 2050. The southern border of cane toad distribution is predicted to move further south by approximately 100 km and be limited by the opposing influences of increasing air