The country, from above

The map

The whole story in one frame: Gulf St Vincent to the west, the Adelaide Plains the city sits on, and the Mount Lofty Ranges rising to the east — each marker a place you can visit and read for yourself. Tap one for its guide.

TODO — the terrain base. This is a working placeholder: an interactive MapLibre GL canvas centred on the gulf-to-range region, with the place markers live. The full shaded-relief DEM base (a self-hosted Copernicus GLO-30 relief tiled into PMTiles, plus the vegetation overlay) is a follow-up, exactly as in the reference app. Until then the map shows the region frame and the pins; the numbered list below is always the accessible way in.

1. 1 The mallee emu-wrenThe dry lee's far edge — old spinifex in the rain-shadow mallee behind the Mount Lofty Ranges
2. 2 MalleefowlThe gradient's dry far end — rain-shadow mallee scrub in the lee of the Mount Lofty Ranges
3. 3 Ngarkat — the great mallee reserveThe gradient's dry far end — rain-shadow mallee scrub in the lee of the Mount Lofty Ranges, verging toward the Murray
4. 4 Spinifex (Triodia)The dry lee — sandy rises of the rain-shadow mallee behind the Mount Lofty Ranges
5. 5 The fern gulliesThe innermost wet core — the dampest, most sheltered creases inside the Mount Lofty mesic refugium
6. 6 The southern emu-wrenThe wet refuge — dense swamp and heath high in the rainy Mount Lofty / Fleurieu ranges
7. 7 The Fleurieu peat swampsThe wet refuge's deepest floor — spring-fed peat swamps in the highest, rainiest folds of the southern ranges and the Fleurieu
8. 8 The Mount Lofty chestnut-rumped heathwrenThe wet refuge — dense heath fringing the ranges' rare permanently damp ground
9. 9 Hallett Cove — the glacial pavementThe sea's edge of the range-front story — where the ancient rift floor and the still-rising coast meet Gulf St Vincent
10. 10 Deep time in the rockThe ground beneath and behind the whole transect — the dropped gulf basin and the risen ranges block are both this rift's doing
11. 11 Brush-tailed bettong (woylie)The range-front and hills woodland — now readable only behind a predator-proof fence
12. 12 BanksiaRange-front heath and dry sclerophyll woodland, threaded through the Mount Lofty scrub from the hills down into stringybark country
13. 13 Southern brown bandicoot (the last of the dynasty)The last mesic refuge — dense, wet gully and heath cover high in the rainy Mount Lofty Ranges
14. 14 New Holland honeyeaterCoastal heath to hills woodland — wherever banksia, grevillea or eucalypt is in flower, the bird-pollination bargain is being worked
15. 15 MistletoeA rider on the whole gradient rather than a resident of one rung — found wherever mature eucalypt woodland survives, from plains remnants to the summit forest
16. 16 Superb fairy-wrenA generalist along the whole gradient — coastal scrub to range-front garden — wherever dense ground-level cover survives
17. 17 Western grey kangarooThe range front and its reserves — grazing the forest edge and cleared fringe where the old grassy plain meets the hills
18. 18 Grasstree (Xanthorrhoea)Threaded through the range-front and Mount Lofty sclerophyll forest and woodland, from the hills scrub down into drier stringybark country
19. 19 The seed-planting antsUnderfoot through the Mount Lofty forest and scrub understorey, wherever an elaiosome-bearing shrub has just shed seed
20. 20 Posidonia seagrassThe submerged floor of the gradient — rooted below the tideline, seaward of the samphire coast
21. 21 The seagrass meadowsThe submerged floor of the gradient — the drowned meadows below the tideline, seaward of the samphire coast
22. 22 Orchids and their fungiThe forest floor and heath understorey along the range front and up through the Mount Lofty summit country
23. 23 Mount Lofty summitThe high middle of the transect — where the climb from the gulf peaks before tipping back down into the rain-shadow mallee
24. 24 Adelaide rosellaNot fixed to one rung — the generalist middle ground, equally at home on the range front, the hills forest edge and the suburban canopy in between
25. 25 Cleland — the range frontThe range front made walkable — where the cleared plains stop and the intact wet forest of the Mount Lofty summit block begins
26. 26 Messmate & brown stringybarkThe wet spine — the forested canopy of the ranges, above the cleared plains
27. 27 MistletoebirdNot fixed to one rung — wherever eucalypts still stand with mistletoe in the canopy, from plains remnants to range-front forest
28. 28 Short-beaked echidnaThe whole gradient at once — the one native mammal genuinely recorded end to end, from the samphire coast to the summit forest to the mallee behind
29. 29 Spring — the floweringThe range front and Mount Lofty summit country, where the wet season's last flush plays out before the dry
30. 30 Stringybark countryThe wet spine — high-rainfall forested ranges above the cleared plains and below the deepest gully refuges
31. 31 Yellow-tailed black-cockatooThe wet spine — Mount Lofty forest canopy, feeding on the ranges' banksia and hakea and nesting in its oldest hollow-bearing trees
32. 32 Wattles (Acacia)Understorey and disturbed edges through the Mount Lofty forest and range-front scrub, thickest on freshly burnt, cleared or grazed ground
33. 33 Fire countryConcentrated in the fuel-heavy Mount Lofty range front, but a force that reaches the whole gulf-to-range transect every summer
34. 34 Leafy seadragonBelow the gradient — out in the open, saline water of the backwards sea itself, among the gulf's seagrass meadows
35. 35 The gulf-to-range transectThe entire transect, gulf to summit to rain shadow — every other place, ecosystem and species unit sits somewhere on this one line
36. 36 The Hills Face scarpThe step itself — the fault-line join where the dropped gulf basin meets the rising ranges block
37. 37 Common brushtail possumNot fixed to one rung — from the wetter gullies of the ranges to the flattest suburban street, wherever there is a den site and a garden to raid
38. 38 Greater bilby (the lost suburbanite)Once the Adelaide Plains and their fringe; today only the arid interior, a thousand kilometres north
39. 39 Reading absenceNot a single site but a way of looking, applied the length of the whole gulf-to-range transect
40. 40 Summer — the dryNot one site but the whole transect at once — the same closing act plays out from the samphire flats to the summit
41. 41 The drought engineNot a single site but the citywide rule — the climate engine that runs above the whole gulf-to-range transect
42. 42 Winter — the greenNot a single site — the citywide and range-wide rule, running the length of the gulf-to-range transect each wet season
43. 43 Karrawirra Pari — the TorrensThe city crossing — where the range-front stream meets the plains and, since 1937, an artificial mouth to the gulf
44. 44 Morialta — a hills gorgeThe step made walkable — where a creek has sawn down through the rising fault scarp into a fern-shaded pocket of the wet refuge
45. 45 River red gumThe watercourse thread — the wet line that runs across the gradient, not up it, tracing reliable water through otherwise dry ground
46. 46 The vanished grassy plainsThe plains proper — the flat, once grassy-wooded step of the gulf-to-range gradient, and its most cleared
47. 47 Barker InletThe gulf's nursery — the sheltered tidal reach at the northern end of the samphire coast
48. 48 The samphire coastThe salt threshold — the lowest, saltiest ground at the foot of the gulf-to-range gradient
49. 49 Grey mangroveThe salt threshold's outer edge — the seaward-most standing vegetation on the gulf-to-range gradient, roots literally in the tide
50. 50 The slender-billed thornbillThe salt threshold — the samphire flats at the foot of the gulf-to-range gradient
51. 51 The St Kilda mangrovesThe salt threshold — the seaward edge of the gulf-to-range gradient, where a tropical tree survives at its cold limit
52. 52 White-fronted chatThe salt threshold — open samphire and saltmarsh at the foot of the gulf-to-range gradient
53. 53 South Australian blue gumThe footslopes — surviving as woodland at the range front (Parra Wirra and similar reserves) but as a lone paddock or street tree on the plains below
54. 54 Spear-grass & wallaby-grassThe vanished floor of the plains — the tussock layer of the gulf-to-range gradient's lowest, flattest, most completely cleared ground
55. 55 Samphire (glasswort)The salt threshold — the lowest, saltiest ground of the gulf-to-range gradient
56. 56 Winaityinaityi Pangkara — the bird sanctuaryThe salt threshold — the tidal flats and saltmarsh north of the city, where the gulf-to-range gradient meets a hemisphere-spanning bird migration
57. 57 The mallee eucalyptsThe dry lee — the farthest, driest end of the gulf-to-range gradient, beyond the rain shadow of the ranges
58. 58 The rain-shadow malleeThe dry lee — the farthest, driest end of the gulf-to-range gradient, beyond the rain shadow of the ranges
59. 59 Grey ploverThe salt threshold — mudflats at the foot of the gulf-to-range gradient