SOUTH-WEST AUSTRALIA (Tate 1889)

Originally the botanical Autochthonian Province (Tate 1889), which was bounded in the east by a rainfall line of twenty inches, the term was rejected by Diels and others in the phytogeographical literature and the term Southwest was used instead. In zoogeographical treatments, the term “Autochthonian” still appears, but Spencer does not refer to it, rather placing the western part of Australia into the Eyrean Region. Spencer characterises the Eyrean region based on a range of mammals, reptiles, fish and molluscs. Only later authors such as Sloane (1905, 1915), Main et al. (1958) and Cracraft (1991) accept the southwest as a separate sub-region.