ABSTRACT
The North Australian Tropical Region contains only two molluscan provinces, the western Dampierian Province of Western Australia State and the Northern Territory, and the eastern Solanderian Province of Queensland State. The entire province is dominated by the Great Barrier Reef and its associated island groups, but also encompasses the myriad of isolated coral reefs and islands of the western Coral Sea east of the Great Barrier Reef. The northern half of the Solanderian Province, extending from the Torres Strait on the Papua-New Guinea-Queensland border south to Yeppoon, southern Queensland, is referred to as the Cairnsian Subprovince. Encompassing the entire Great Barrier Reef system of coral islands and reef complexes, this eutropical area houses the most species-rich molluscan communities found anywhere within the entire Australian Super-Region. Named for the Coral Sea, the Coralian Subprovince encompasses the hundreds of cays and isolated coral reefs that are found in the open ocean east of the Great Barrier Reef.
