This polygon dataset contains areas of maritime grasslands identified by satellite imagery and ground truthing in 2018. This mapping was produced by Dr. John T. Hunter as part of a self-led project to produce hierarchical classification of grasslands on coastal headlands of New South Wales in eastern Australia.

Original mapping was based on 50cm and 1m resolution satellite imagery and later ground truth. Not all grassland sites were visited for ground truth.

Regarding the presence of Themeda triandra, Hunter stated in email correspondence that "there are patches down to Bega that are Themeda dominant but they are not whole headlands. As you move north the headlands are almost entirely Themeda (except Little Broughton Island which is Poa dominated like most of those in the south)." In mapped grasslands not dominated by Themeda, "other grassland types, particularly Poa, Microlaena, Cynodon may be the more common type". Areas not found to be Themeda dominated were also noted by Hunter to be rare and worthy of legislative protection.

Further information on the methodology and the survey's findings can be found in the paper "Grasslands on Coastal Headlands in New South Wales, south eastern Australia" included in the resources. For internal users paper is stored in: P:\Corporate\Products\Vegetation\VegClassification\GrasslandsCoastalHeadlands

NB. Because this vegetation layer contains a Threatened Ecological Community (Themeda Grassland) an additional layer file sits under P:\Corporate\Layers\Biodiversity\EcologicalCommunities for discoverability.

VIS ID 5134