Vegetation of the Boyne Smelters Ltd buffer zone : a report to Boyne Smelters Ltd

The Boyne Island aluminium smelter has been operational for about 13 years and emission effects on the buffer zone have been well documented in a series of internal reports to Boyne Smelters Ltd (fonnally Gladstone Aluminium Ltd) from 1979 to 1993 by Dr D. Daley. Botany Department, University of Queensland. Although not documented, urban and recreational impacts would have increased on the site as the Boyne Island township expanded due to the influx of the Smelter workforce from 1982. As a result any contemporary study must endeavour to take account of the existing impacts (and any consequential changes in process) when describing and commenting on ecosystem dynamics and the composition and structure of the plant communities within the buffer zone. This study attempts to do this. The report provides a description of the composition and srtucture of the plant communities as well as a consideration of the current impacts on, and their implication for the future integrity of, the buffer zone.