Image of the Month – August 2009
Beecroft Peninsula, NSW, Australia
This month’s image is a mosaic of 6 HyMap flight lines featuring the Beecroft Peninsula (34.05 deg S, 150.82 deg E) which is about 135 km (85 miles) south of Sydney, forms the north-east headland of Jervis Bay and hosts the small township of Currarong. (The image colour represents the LANDSAT 7-4-1 band combination)
The areas of Jervis Bay and the Beecroft Peninsula are of significant ecological value with the Beecroft Pensinsula being on the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List and the marine areas make up the Jervis Bay Marine Park. The Beecroft Peninsula is the best example of Permian cliffed coast in NSW and also serves as a test range for the Australian Defence Force.
Jervis Bay contains the largest and deepest beds of the seagrass strapweed in NSW, most of which is found in Hare Bay. Along the estuary flowing into Hare Bay, there are areas of mangroves and saltmarsh. Within the marine park, 8 species of shark and more than 20 species of marine mammals have been recorded. The park supports a resident group of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin.
Beecroft Peninsula is significant for its high diversity of natural vegetation surviving in the region which ranges from heath to temperate rainforest. More than 500 plant species have been identified in the area with 8 species either rare or threatened. It is the largest area of heath remaining on the NSW coast and supports more than 40 heath species.
HyVista Corp acquired this imagery in August, 2008 in conjunction with an acquisition that was used to test the company’s bathymetric and benthic mapping algorithms.
