Sydney Coastal River Flat Forest

The Third Settlement Reserve is an area full of history. This is where the future of Australia hung in the balance in the first few years of the colony. Convict labour was used here to attempt to grow food for the almost-starving colony.

Despite the long history of clearing and more recent damage due to floodworks, there is an amazing amount of diversity which precariously remains. Here you can see the remnants of the Sydney Coastal River Flat Forest — an endangered ecological community under the NSW Threatened Species Act. Much of the original riparian vegetation was cleared unwisely when local government 'cleaned' the banks by using heavy machinery. This made the problem of erosion and bank collapse even worse. Invevitably, the 'cleaning' failed — the disturbance encouraged even more weeds

You can help our Heritage River come alive once more by joining a local bushcare group or participating in the various activities advertised in the Events section.

Grey Box-Ironbark Woodland

This type of community was previously mapped as Grey Box-Ironbark Woodland (Map Unit 10d) by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Although it has now been put into the wider category of Shale Hills Woodland and Shale Plains Woodland, by the National Parks & Wildlife Service, the ridge-top examples of this type of vegetation is now very rare.

Kindelan Reserve is the site of a native grassland regeneration project commenced in October 1994. Here you can see the remarkable recovery of the rare grasses and herbs - after the the stopping of Council's mowing. The understorey is most critical for many of Australia's unique mammals and birds.

Regeneration of this understorey is an important part of "bush regeneration". Much of this understorey has been cleared in reserves, with only the trees remaining. This will not support a diverse range of native animals, nor will the trees survive long-term without the important understorey.

Help a wonderful place become even better.