This report describes the results of the third and final expedition to the Kimberley to document the marine flora and fauna of the area. The expedition took place in November-December 1996 with the assistance of a grant from the National Estates Grant Program. Twenty-four stations were examined. Detailed notes are presented on the station locations and habitat types present. At each station algae, seagrasses, molluscs, fish, crustacea and corals were collected and notes were made on the few mangroves observed in this area. 3.Five areas of particular significance were found. These were: - Station 5, Hedley Island - coral pools, fish, algae and general diversity. - Station 11, Low Water, East Montelivet - extensive coral/coralline reef flat with high diversity coral cover. Large pools, with spectacular coral cover and fish. - Station 13, East side, Cassini Island - geomorphology and coral cover. Station 21, Wild Cat Reefs, eastern reef, west side - high algal diversity. - Station 22, The Breakwater, Montgomery Reef - special reef. This report provides an extensive section outlining the coastal geomorphology of the central Kimberley. There have been no published records of the marine algae which occur in the Kimberley. This report provides details of ca. seventy species collected during the expedition. Coralline algae are poorly known and species in this group are currently being worked on taxonomically. One hundred and forty four species of scleractinian corals, 292 species of molluscs, 89 species of non-caridean decapod crustaceans and 80 species of caridean shrimps, 228 species of fish and 19 barnacles were recorded. Potentially new species were found in several groups. The taxonomy of many of the groups collected is poorly known. Material was obtained for specialists in particular groups in Australia and overseas. The material has been sorted and sent to the specialists for examination and determination of species. This work is complex and time consuming, so it has not been possible to provide identifications for this report. However, the material is currently being worked up and will be presented in the scientific literature when it has been completed.

This report describes the results of the first of three expeditions planned to the Kimberley to document the marine flora and fauna of the area. The expedition took place in November 1994 with the assistance of a grant from the National Estates Grant Program.Twenty-two stations were examined. Detailed notes are presented on the station locations and habitat types present. At each station seagrasses, algae, fish, and some invertebrate groups were collected and notes were made on mangroves in the area.Three areas of particular significance were found: the intertidal seagrass beds in the area of Sunday and Tallon Islands, which are the largest known for the Kimberley region; an extensive intertidal system which surrounds Montgomery Island with an area greater than 400 square kilometres; and a hypersaline lagoon on Macleay Island. These areas are described and the reasons for their significance detailed.This report provides an extensive section outlining the coastal geomorphology of the southern Kimberley islands, emphasising the unique intertidal terraces which trap water at low tide and have allowed the development of the seagrass systems at Sunday and Tallon Islands.There have been no published records of the marine algae which occur in the Kimberley. This report provides details of 72 species collected during the expedition. Coralline algae are poorly known and species in this group are currently being worked on taxonomically. Two genera commonly found during the trip are provisionally considered to be undescribed and two species are new records for Western Australia. Eight species of seagrasses were recorded from a total of 15 stations; the number of known localities at which the most common species occurs has been trebled.Two hundred thirty-two species of molluscs, 173 crustaceans, 24 polychaetes,and 197 species of fish were recorded. Potentially new species were found in several groups. Detailed collections were made of additional groups such as echinoderms. The first collections from the Kimberley were obtained of groups such as isopods and nemerteans.The taxonomy of many of the groups collected is poorly known. Material was obtained for specialists in particular groups in Australia and overseas. The material has been sorted and sent to the specialists for examination and determination of species. This work is complex and time consuming, so it has not been possible to provide identifications for this report. However, the material is currently being worked up and will be presented in the scientific literature when it has been completed.

In November 1976 a survey was undertaken of the Mitchell Plateau, adjacent islands in the lower Mitchell and Lawley River drainage systems and shores of Port Warrender. This report comprises papers resulting from the 1976 survey, although they contain data from earlier and later fieldwork as well. The report also included the results of a botanical survey conducted independently by staff of the WA Herbarium and an account of mangroves of Admiralty Gulf and elsewhere on the northern Kimberley coast by A.G Wells of the University of Sydney.

Eight scientific staff of the Western Australian and Northern Territory Museums completed a survey of 37 marine, five freshwater and two terrestrial stations in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Habitats were sampled for a variety of invertebrate taxa and for fish. This report includes species inventories for most of the taxa sampled. More than 170 species of hard corals, 82 species of echinoderms, 317 species of molluscs, 139 species of decapod crustaceans, 49 species of barnacles, 67 species and higher taxa of polychaete worms and 324 species of fishes were recorded. The Kimberley has quite a high diversity of marine habitats which are dominated by the effects of strong tidal currents and high turbidity resulting in a relatively low faunal diversity. Comments are included on future management options for Kimberley marine ecosystems.

To document the marine flora and fauna of the Kimberley region, and to make the information available to the public and scientific community. Survey focused on islands and reefs between Montgomery Island and Cassini Island. NOTE: survey boundary was not defined in report

The major gap in the surveys of the shallow water marine fauna of Western Australia is the Kimberley region. The Kimberley is a vast expanse of land in the northeastern corner of Western Australia, the closest point of which is some 2600 km from Perth by air. The area is sparsely inhabited and there are few roads. Access to the coast is largely by sea. The coastal towns of Derby and Wyndham in the Kimberley are small, with less than five thousand people each, and are separated by a distance of over 2000 km along the coast; there are no coastal settlements between Derby and Wyndham. The marine invertebrate fauna of the Kimberleys is virtually unknown. In 1976 the Western Australian Museum and Field Museum of Natural History mounted a major expedition to the Kimberley which was centered on the Mitchell Plateau-Admiralty Gulf area, one of the few coastal localities accessible from shore. The work undertaken was primarily terrestrial (Anon, 1981) but included two studies of marine molluscs (Wells, 1981; Wells and Slack-Smith, 1981). The Admiralty Gulf area is thus the only part of the Kimberley from which any substantial marine invertebrate collections have been made, and these are restricted to molluscs. The second goal of the 1988 expedition was thus to survey the marine invertebrate fauna of the Kimberleys to obtain specimens for the permanent collections. A subsidiary goal was to develop a knowledge of working in this remote area with a view to selecting areas for future work if funding and a vessel can be obtained.

The Marine Biodiversity Hub project is a collaborative research program funded by the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts through the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities (CERF) program. For the Geoscience Australia project team, the project involves working with project partners and stakeholders to: * collate existing useful marine physical and biological datasets for selected areas of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone and strategically collect new data; * analyse this data to develop reliable physical surrogates of benthic habitats and biological communities which can be used to predict patterns of biodiversity in the Australian marine jurisdiction; and * effectively communicate the results of this research, including access to products and datasets.

Between 1998 and 2000 a partnership between the Western Australian Museum and Woodside Energy Ltd. was formed to survey and collect the marine flora and fauna of the Dampier Archipelago. Techniques employed during the surveys of the Dampier Archipelago included SCUBA diving, shore collecting, dredging, underwater photography of living specimens and video recording of the ocean floor, which resulted in the recording of more than 4 500 species, including 268 new to science. Many publications resulted from this survey and a website was created to distribute this valuable information.

The Montebello Islands were surveyed by the Western Australian Museum (WAM) from 9th-27th August 1993 on behalf of CALM (now Department of Environment and Conservation). All major habitats were sampled by 45 stations for the following fauna: scleractinian coral, echinoderms, molluscs, fishes and crustaceans.