Dragon Tree Soak
Nature Reserve covers an area of around 18,000 hectares and is located in the northwest of Western Australia. It is an extremely remote area where no access roads currently exist. Access is gained only by arduous cross country travel across the dune fields and soak pans of the
Great Sandy Desert. At its closest point, the reserve is 210km east of the Great Northern Highway.
Eminent botanist Dr Alex George and a college were being helicoptered to
McLarty Hills in 1977 when they spotted the soak from the air, they spend a few days at the soak collecting samples and then had it named.
"Dragon Tree Soak" was the name suggested by the Western Australian Herbarium and approved on 22.12.77. "The soak is a prominent & unusual feature. It covers about 1ha and supports a dense growth of the White Dragon Tree (Sesbania Formosa)." Quote from W.A.Herbarium Letter 3661/60 page 40.
Dragon Tree Soak is a swamp believed to be a relic of the riverine vegetation found along the Mandora Palaeoriver during its partial rejuvenation by the wetter climates of the early to mid Holocene Epoch (It is generally accepted that the Holocene started approximately 12,000 years BP (before present day. The period follows the Baltic-Scandinavian Ice Age). The swamp supports beds of bullrush (Typha domingensis) and is surrounded by a low woodland of White Dragon Trees (Sesbania formosa); these and other plants are markedly confined to the Soak. It is used by birds from the surrounding hummock grasslands but also has species generally associated with scrub or tree-lined watercourses elsewhere. Species not recorded elsewhere in the region but present in the Typha beds were the Clamorous Reed-Warbler and the Australian crake. The soak includes a freshwater spring, a permanent freshwater marsh and peatland. It has an area of 5 ha (main water area: 1 ha). It forms an oasis supporting plants and animals that are absent or scarce elsewhere in
the desert.