Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00199:reg:6:p9
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00199
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 6 (pt 9/17)
Character Range: 28060–31062

the Australian Painted Snipe varies across its range, so it is not possible to generate one detailed description or definition of habitat critical to survival. The habitat critical to the survival of the Australian Painted Snipe may be more usefully defined at a bioregional scale that takes into account the combination of plants, animals, water depth, geology, landforms, and climate that is relevant to a geographical unit. Any categorisation of habitat critical to survival must acknowledge that it exists as a mosaic of wetland habitats, with carrying capacity fluctuating with seasonal or episodic floods and effects of threats.

   The Australian Painted Snipe generally inhabits shallow terrestrial freshwater (occasionally brackish) wetlands, including temporary and permanent lakes, swamps and claypans. They also use inundated or waterlogged grassland or saltmarsh, dams, rice crops, sewage farms and bore drains. Typical sites include those with rank emergent tussocks of grass, sedges, rushes or reeds, or samphire; often with scattered clumps of lignum or canegrass or sometimes tea-tree (Melaleuca). The Australian Painted Snipe sometimes utilises areas that are lined with trees, or that have some scattered fallen or washed-up timber (Marchant and Higgins 1993).

   Australian Painted Snipe breeding habitat requirements may be quite specific: shallow wetlands with areas of bare wet mud and mixed heights of low vegetation. Nest records are all, or nearly all, from or near small islands in freshwater wetlands, with a combination of very shallow water, exposed mud, dense low cover and sometimes some tall dense cover (Rogers et al. 2005). Gilgai micro relief, comprising extensive systems of small mounds (e.g. 1 to 3 m in diameter) and hollows (e.g. up to 0.5 m deep), is especially suitable; wetlands with gilgai are abundant in seasonal and other temporary wetlands of Australia, especially in the Murray–Darling, arid and savannah regions on clay soils.

   As a guide, habitat critical to the survival of the Australian Painted Snipe can be considered to include:
•       Any natural wetland habitat where the species is known or likely to occur (especially with suitable breeding habitat) within the indicative distribution map (Figure 1).

•       Any location outside the above area that may be periodically occupied by Australian Painted Snipe when wetland conditions are favourable.

             Habitat critical to the survival of the Australian Painted Snipe occurs across a wide range of land tenures, including on Indigenous Protected Areas, freehold land, state reserves, and national parks. It is essential that the locations where the species regularly occurs is given the highest protection and conservation measures target these productive habitats. Sympathetic management of buffer areas adjoining nesting and foraging habitats is also important to consider. Buffer zones will depend on the nature and location of the activity (e.g. adjacent to the wetland