Range Description

Endemic to Norfolk Island (Australia) and two nearby islands. On Norfolk Island itself, natural forests are largely restricted to the Mt Pitt (316 m) area of the Norfolk Island National Park. It also occurs on Phillip Island, a 4 km² small island 6 km south of Norfolk Island. The natural vegetation on this island was largely destroyed by rabbits and other introduced animals by the 1970s and almost all Araucarias were lost. There are also historical records of its presence on the tiny limestone islet of Nepean (10.5 ha) off the south coast of Norfolk Island. In the early 1790s, about 200 mature trees grew there but by 1840 these had been reduced to one live and one dead tree; these appear to have persisted in some state until the late 1930s (Norfolk Island Parks and Forestry Service 2003). Currently there are no Araucarias on this islet.

The total EOO is less than 100 km². The main natural stands on Mt Pitt cover an area of less than 400 hectares giving a minimum AOO (using standard IUCN 4 km² grid cells) of 4 km². Fragments of natural stands also occur in other parts of the island so that the total AOO would be more than 10km². However, it cannot be more than 38 km² as this is the combined total area of both Norfolk Island and Phillip Island.