Vine Thicket Bush Fruits of James Price Point

Red Hand has not blogged recently, deciding to sit quite, walk and enjoy Country and really feel, smell, see and taste the wet season, instead. Sitting on the edge of the Indian Ocean in the early evenings and watching the storm clouds gather, as lightning plays snakes and ladders across the sky are the planet’s inspirational performances that hearten resolve and shape courage. And that smell, the one that rises up from the earth as those very first rain drops hit the parched and thirsty land. Taste Country, by savoring the appreciation of all the bush fruits that are currently abundant, and found through out the Vine Thickets (Remnant Rainforests) at James Price Point. The wet season, is a wonderful time to be out in Country and in the heat of the day you can find cool shelters under the canopies of the vine thickets whilst you feast on all the fruits of the forest.

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There is an increasing emphasis worldwide on the preservation of habitats and conservation of the biodiversity of life on earth, yet unique natural environments like the Dampier Peninsula continue to be eroded and destroyed by human activities like the proposal to build the biggest 14 Trains LNG Precinct in the world. The Dampier Peninsula has a immense history of Indigenous settlement and a relatively recent one of European exploration and occupation. Its position straddling the arid areas of the south and the monsoonal tropics to the north has resulted in the development of the pindan soils and the unique vegetation that mantles them. The rich dune - associated vine thickets (remnant rain forests) of the Peninsular occur nowhere else in western Australia.

On the 27th Dec 2008 Colin Barnett, the West Australian Premier may also be steeling himself for new year hostility from environmental, Aboriginal and community groups. Barnett announced James Price Point as his choice for the site of a liquefied natural gas processing precinct.

"It is a flat, scrubby coastal strip 60km north of the tourist town of Broome"



The Vine Thicket within this area from Barred Creek northwards through Quondong to James Price Point, there is a significant belt of Vine Thickets noteable for there ever green trees Diospyros ferrea var. humilis, Mimusops elengi, Celtis philippensis, Melaleuca dealbata and, rarely, Parinari. Pittosporum moluccanum is restricted , on the mainland Kimberley, to coastal vine thickets in the James Price Point area of the Peninsula, and has been gazetted as "Declared Rare Flora.

Shrubs include citrus like Glycosmic species and the deciduous habrophyllus. All of these species are at their most southern end.

According to the WA’s Department of State Development Map, the LNG Main operations will be place directly over the most substantial community of remnant rainforest (vine thickets) within the area. They wish to tuck their operations in behind the Holocene sand dunes in order to shelter from the prevailing winds, however once they start their proposed vegetation/habitat clearing and excavation of the remnant rainforest, the Holocene sand dune with become highly unstable and will eventually blow away.