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Blundells Flat, Ex-coupe 424, ACT. VAST-2: Tracking the Transformation of Australia's Vegetated Landscapes

Created 25/06/2025

Updated 04/03/2026

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The aim of this project is to compile land use and management practices and their observed and measured impacts and effects on vegetation condition. The results provide land managers and researchers with a tool for reporting and monitoring spatial and temporal transformations of Australia’s native vegetated landscapes due to changes in land use and management practices. Following are the details about site in Blundells Flat, ex-coupe 424, ACT.

Pre-European benchmark-analogue vegetation: The site was originally a brown barrel (Eucalyptus fastigata), growing in association with ribbon gum (E. viminalis).

Brief chronology of changes in land use and management:

  • 1788: Unmodified and intact tall open eucalypt forest; forest unaffected
  • 1915: Water catchment area declared for Canberra - forest unaffected
  • 1955: Commenced selective logging of mainly brown barrel (E. fastigata)
  • 1956: Clear-felled remaining wet sclerophyll forest and pushed timber into windrows with a bulldozer
  • 1958: Felled timber burnt in February
  • 1958: 1st rotation radiata or Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) planted by hand
  • 1960: Controlled competing regrowth native vegetation, manually with axes, slashers, or hoes
  • 1986: 1st rotation P. radiata harvested with crawler tractors
  • 1987: Coupe was treated using a crusher roller weighing 17 tonnes towed by a D8 bulldozer
  • 1988: Coupe was ripped and mounded. 2nd rotation P. radiata seedlings planted by hand with a mattock. Fertilized every seedling by hand
  • 1990: Controlled competing regrowth native vegetation using brush hooks e.g. eucalypts, acacia and 1st rotation pine seedlings
  • 2002: 14 year old 2nd rotation was thinned and pruned to around 450 stems / ha. Thinnings were left on the ground to decay
  • 2003: Area burnt by severe wildfire killed all pines. Sterile rye grass was sown across the coupe using light aircraft to stabilise erodible soils. Killed pines and native regrowth pushed over and windrowed with a bulldozer
  • 2004: Windrowed timber was burnt. Site declared minimal use - rehabilitation
  • 2005: Contractors were engaged to manually remove pine wildlings
  • 2005-2012: Site left to rehabilitate.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Blundells Flat, Ex-coupe 424, ACT. VAST-2: Tracking the Transformation of Australia's Vegetated Landscapes
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cb805ffd-faa5-478f-88ca-013ad675390a
Contact Point
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery
rthackway@netspeed.com.au
Reference Period 01/01/1915 - 31/12/2012
Geospatial Coverage Australia
Data Portal Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network "Blundells Flat, Ex-coupe 424, ACT. VAST-2: Tracking the Transformation of Australia's Vegetated Landscapes". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/blundells-flat-ex-coupe-424-act-vast-2-tracking-the-transformation-of-australias-vegetated-land