Quarries as a refuge: Kables sand quarry, a haven for the endangered Blue Mountains water skink

Almost all quarries, working or spent, have water features associated with them. Although such features may be exploited for washing and sorted extracted resources, settling ponds and drowned workings can act as an additional habitat and/or refuge for a variety of aquatic life. Where habitat has become limited or natural perturbation (e.g. bush fires) is catastrophic, quarries may become the last bastion for species and a founder for subsequent populations. The Blue Mountains water skink, Eulamprus leuranesis, is one of the rarest endemic lizards in Australia, specific to elevated shrub and sedge swamps in the Blue Mountains and Newnes Plateau. Classified as an endangered species, climate change, and bush fires are a major threat. For wildlife, bushfires can devastate local populations and where habitat has become fragmented result in localized extinctions. For species with a wide spread distribution, localized extinction events are unlikely to be deleterious, however, for species with a very restricted and specific distribution, localized extinction events are likely to result in that species demise. This project seeks to evaluate the role the Kables sand quarry, Clarence, NSW with its own population of Blue Mountain water skinks may have in acting as a refuge and subsequent source for recolonization following bush fires.