A mined sand dune revegetation sequence in Myall Lakes, N.S.W., Australia

Abstract

Mineral Deposits Pty. Ltd., exploited rutile and zircon deposits laying in Bridge Hill Ridge between 1974 and 1983, after which the area was included in the Myall Lakes National Park; the mine lays about 280 km north of Sydney, in the central coast of NSW. The newest vegetation on the mine site is well over ten years old and the whole site now exhibits the characteristics of an immature forest ecosystem that, in the future, it will show little evidence of past mining depletion although sound studies have demonstrated that vegetation recovery has not yet been achieved in the mineral sands industry in NSW. Multitemporal EO imagery is processed in this study to follow up and quantify the recovery sequence experienced in Bridge Hill Ridge at the level of botanical associations.