Mawson Plateau - Aquatic Habitat

Aquatic Habitat

The plateau is a drainage basin for the Granite Plateau Creek, and it’s major tributary Saucepan Creek. Both of these creeks flow only briefly after rain and as the region receives highly variable rainfall, water is scarce for most of the year and both creeks are ephemeral. In places the creeks have cut deep gorges and valleys into the plateau’s granite creating permanent and semi-permanent waterholes that support numerous species of frogs including the Brown Toadlet (Pseudophryne bibroniiand), water spiders (Dolomedes spp.) and small populations of unidentified fish. The fish are possibly Spangled Perch, (Leiopotherapon unicolor) a widely distributed desert fish common in much of the Hamilton Creek Catchment, or Lake Eyre Hardyhead, (Craterocephalus eyresii) the most common and widely distributed fish in the Flinders Ranges.

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