Cumberland Plain Woodland

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Coordinates: 33°50′59″S 150°54′40″E / 33.84972°S 150.91111°E / -33.84972; 150.91111
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Cumberland Plain Woodland
lithosols), loam

The Cumberland Plain Woodland, also known as Cumberland Plain Bushland

Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that comprises an open tree canopy, a groundcover with grasses and herbs, usually with layers of shrubs and/or small trees.[3]

Situated in the

Office of Environment and Heritage, the community falls predominantly within the Coastal Valley Grassy Woodlands region,[4] which are part of the Grassy Woodlands formation found in the eastern corridor of New South Wales.[5]

Currently, less than 6% of the Woodlands remain in small parts distributed across the

land clearing for agriculture, urban sprawl and the introduction of harmful weed species.[7]

Geography

Sydney CBD
.

In 1877, Cumberland Plain Woodlands covered 107,000 hectares and filled around 30% of the Sydney Basin. At the time of European land exploration of Australia European settlement, the Cumberland Plain contained 1,070 km² of

Sydney CBD
, where it receives 750–900 mm of annual rainfall.

The soils of the plain are infertile by world standards, but are not so by Australian standards. The plain is made up of eucalypt woodland with a grassy undergrowth and sclerophyllous (hard-leaved) shrub stratum, demarcating with the heath and forest communities of the sandstone plateaus that surround the plain.[9] The biotic community is mostly found on flat or hilly terrains up to about 350 m in elevation, but it may also be present on locally precipitous sites and at slightly higher elevations. Some parts of the community may have a forest structure. The Woodland features an open tree canopy, groundcover prevailed by grasses and herbs, sometimes with layers of shrubs and small trees.[10]

Locations

Spanning through the cities of

Cumberland, Campbelltown, Camden and Penrith, with the cities of Canterbury-Bankstown, Hawkesbury, Parramatta and Wollondilly being on the peripheries, they contain approximately 2000 ha (one-fifth) of the remaining Cumberland Plain Woodland. Its range does not extend to slightly wetter Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest, or high-rainfall ridges (such as Blue Gum High Forest in the upper North Shore), which are geologically on the Hornsby Plateau.[11]

Examples of the remnants can be seen at Defence Establishment Orchard Hills, Scheyville National Park, Rosford Street Reserve, Brenan Park, Central Gardens Nature Reserve, Fairfield Park Precinct, Prospect Hill, Prospect Nature Reserve, Western Sydney Regional Park, Wetherill Park Nature Reserve and Chipping Norton Lake, among other places.[12]

Western Sydney Airport

The Western Sydney Airport, currently under construction at Badgerys Creek, New South Wales, will require the clearing of a large area of Cumberland Plain Woodland. Environmental offsets have been announced to ensure the protection, restoration and preservation of the woodland. The Biodiversity Offset Delivery Plan was announced on 24 August 2018 and included:

  • Restoration and management of over 900 hectares of Cumberland Plain Woodland at Defence Establishment Orchard Hills
  • Purchase of BioBanking credits through the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Scheme[13]
  • A contribution to the Greening Australia Cumberland Seed Hub program
  • Acquisition of suitable parcels of land to be managed by local conservation groups
  • Other compensatory measures.[14]

Ecological communities

Moist Shale Woodlands
Shale Hills Woodlands
Shale Plains Woodlands

The Cumberland Plain Woodland, classed under Coastal Valley Grassy Woodlands, includes these

ecological communities, with some overlapping and others plainly being sub-regions of the Woodland:[15]

Gallery

  • Shale Plains with walking track
    Shale Plains with
    walking track
  • Shale Hills with offroad driving path
    Shale Hills with
    offroad
    driving path
  • Shale Plains with a mowed track
    Shale Plains with a mowed track
  • Shale Hills with a road traversing through it
    Shale Hills with a road traversing through it
  • Shale Plains with modified landscape
    Shale Plains with modified landscape
  • Shale-Gravel Transition Forest
    Shale-Gravel Transition Forest

Vegetation

See also: Ecology of Sydney
Selected tree and shrub species
White feather honeymyrtle
with lance-shaped leaves that is covered with creamy-coloured flowers.

The vegetation of the ecoregion includes grasslands, savanna, open woodlands, and some patches of sclerophyll forest lying on a nutrient-poor alluvium that was deposited by the Nepean River from sandstone and shale bedrock in the Blue Mountains. Despite this, they support a tremendous regional biodiversity.[25]

The grassy woodland is dominated by Grey Box (

Themeda australis) and Weeping Meadow Grass (Microlaena stipoides).[27]

Eucalyptus species:

Non-eucalyptus trees:

Shrubs:

Grasses and sedge:

Wildlife

See also: Ecology of Sydney § Wildlife

Bird species in the woodland include (which are mostly

endangered):[28]

  • Gang Gang Cockatoo
  • Glossy Black-cockatoo
  • Brown Treecreeper
  • Painted Honeyeater
  • Swift Parrot
  • Square-tailed Kite
  • Hooded Robin
  • Black-chinned Honeyeater
  • Turquoise Parrot
  • Barking Owl
  • Powerful Owl
  • Speckled Warbler
  • Diamond Firetail
  • Masked Owl
  • Sooty Owl
  • Regent Honeyeater

Mammals:[29]

  • Large-eared Pied Bat
  • Spotted-tail Quoll
  • Eastern False Pipistrelle
  • Eastern Bent-wing Bat
  • Eastern Freetail Bat
  • Large-footed Myotis
  • Yellow-bellied Glider
  • Squirrel Glider
  • Koala
  • Yellow-bellied sheath-tailed bat
  • Greater Broad-nosed Bat

Historical description

In April 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip describes the land west of Parramatta:[2]

Parramatta in 1820s with grassy slopes and scattered trees.

The country through which they travelled was singularly fine, level, or rising in small hills of a very pleasing and picturesque appearance. The soil excellent, except in a few small spots where it was stony. The trees growing at a distance of from 20 to 40 feet [6–12 metres] from each other, and in general entirely free from brushwood, which was confined to the stony and barren spots.

In 1818, author and settler James Atkinson describes the plain as:[2]

One immense tract of forest land extends, with little interruption, from below

Hawkesbury to Appin, a distance of 50 miles...Forest means land more or less furnished with timber trees, and invariably covered with grass
underneath, and destitute of underwood...The whole of this tract, and indeed all the forest in this county, was thick forest land, covered with very heavy timber, chiefly iron and stringy bark, box, blue and other gums, and mahogany.

In 1819, British explorer William Wentworth describes Cumberland Plain's natural landscape between Liverpool and Nepean River:[30]

In 1820s, Peter Miller Cunningham described Cumberland Plain Woodland as "a fine timbered country, perfectly clear of bush...without any impediment in the shape of rocks, scrubs, or close forest".[31]

The soil changes to a thin layer of vegetable

mould, resting on a stratum of yellow clay, which is again supported by a deep bed of schistus. The trees of the forest are here of the most stately dimensions. Full sized gums and iron barks, along side of which the loftiest trees in this country would appear as pigmies, with the beefwood tree, or as it is generally termed, the forest oak
, which is of much humbler growth, are the usual timber.

The forest is extremely thick, but there is little or no

sour grass, which is too effectually sheltered from the rays of the sun, to be possessed of any nutritive and fattening properties, shoots up in the intervals. This description of country, with a few exceptions, however, which deserve not to be particularly noticed, forms another girdle of about 10 miles (16 km) in breadth: so that, generally speaking, the colony for about 16 miles (26 km) into the interior, may be said to possess a soil, which has naturally no claim to fertility
, and will require all the skill and industry of its owners to render it even tolerably productive.

At this distance, however, the aspect of the country begins rapidly to improve. The forest is less thick, and the trees in general are of another description; the iron barks,

blue gums, and box trees, generally usurping their stead. When you have advanced about 4 miles (6.4 km) further into the interior, you are at length gratified with the appearance of a country truly beautiful. An endless variety of hill and dale, clothed in the most luxuriant herbage, and covered with bleating flocks and lowing herds, at length indicate that you are in regions fit to be inhabited by civilized man. The soil has no longer the stamp of barrenness. A rich loam
resting on a substratum of fat red clay, several feet in depth, is found even on the tops of the highest hills, which in general do not yield in fertility to the valleys.

The timber, strange as it may appear, is of inferior size, though still of the same nature, i. e. blue gum, box, and stringy bark. There is no underwood, and the number of trees upon an acre do not upon an average exceed thirty. They are, in fact, so thin, that a person may gallop without difficulty in every direction. Coursing the kangaroo is the favourite amusement of the colonists, who generally pursue this animal at full speed on horseback, and frequently manage, notwithstanding its extraordinary swiftness, to be up at the death; so trifling are the impediments occasioned by the forest.

See also

References

  1. ^ Recovering bushland on the Cumberland Plain: best practice guidelines for the management and restoration of bushland Sydney, N.S.W.: Dept. of Environment and Conservation (NSW), 2005 [4], 94 p. : ill., maps (some col.). Ruth Burton. National Library of Australia. 2 August 2005. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  2. ^
    NSW Government
    . Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  3. ^ Benson DH, Howell J (2002) Cumberland Plain Woodland ecology then and now: interpretations and implications from the work of Robert Brown and others. Cunninghamia 7, 631-650.
  4. ^ Coastal Valley Grassy Woodlands NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
  5. ^ Grassy woodlands NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
  6. ^ "Cumberland Plain Woodland - Woodlands vanishing from Sydney's outskirts". NSW Department of the Environment & Energy. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  7. ^ Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 Archived 2017-07-31 at the Wayback Machine (NSW Act of Parliament, online edition).
  8. ^ Benson DH, Howell J (1990a) ‘Taken for granted: the bushland of Sydney and its suburbs.’ Kangaroo Press and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
  9. ^ Tozer M. (2003). ‘The native vegetation of the Cumberland Plain, western Sydney: systematic classification and field identification of communities’. Cunninghamia. 8, 1: 1–75.
  10. ^ Benson DH (1992) The natural vegetation of the Penrith 1:100 000 map sheet. Cunninghamia 2, 541-596.
  11. ^ Benson DH, Howell J (1990b) Sydney’s vegetation 1788-1988: utilization, degradation and rehabilitation. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 16, 115-127.
  12. ^ Clarke PJ (2000) Plant population processes in temperate woodlands in eastern Australia – premises for management. Pp 248-270 in (Eds. R J Hobbs and C J Yates) Temperate eucalypt woodlands in Australia: biology, conservation, management and restoration (Surrey Beatty & Sons: Chipping Norton).
  13. ^ NSW Government. "Biodiversity Offsets Scheme". NSW Department of Planning and Environment. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  14. ^ "Biodiversity Offset Delivery Plan". Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communication and the Arts. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  15. ^ Keith DA (2004) ‘Ocean shores to desert dunes: the native vegetation of New South Wales and the ACT.’ NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, Sydney.
  16. ^ Keith D, Pellow B, Tozer M (2005) Can’t see the biodiversity for the trees? Implications of alternative landscape models for conservation of Cumberland Plain Woodlands. P6 in (Eds. B Pellow, C. Morris, M Bedward, S. Hill, J Sanders, J Clark) The ecology and management of Cumberland Plain habitats: a symposium (University of Western Sydney: Campbelltown).
  17. ^ James T, Benson DH, Howell J (1999) Rare plants of western Sydney. Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
  18. ^ Fairley A and Waterhouse D 2005, West Sydney Wild – Exploring Nature in Sydney’s Western Suburbs. Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd, Dural, NSW.
  19. Bankstown City Council
    .
  20. ^ James, T., McDougall, L. & Benson, D. (1999) Rare Bushland plants of Western Sydney. (Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney).
  21. Department of the Environment
    . Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  22. ^ Cumberland Plain Shale Woodlands and Shale-Gravel Transition Forest Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  23. ^ Knox KJE, Clarke PJ (2006) Fire season and intensity affect shrub recruitment in temperate sclerophyllous woodlands. Oecologia 149, 730-739.
  24. ^ Biodiversity Report Commonwealth land at Badgerys Creek Prepared for Western Sydney Unit Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development Western Sydney Airport. October 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  25. ^ Earth Resource Analysis PL 1998, Cumberland Plains Woodland: Trial Aerial Photographic interpretation of remnant woodlands, Sydney. Unpublished report prepared for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service – Sydney Zone.
  26. ^ Nichols PWB (2005) Evaluation of restoration: a grassy woodland. PhD thesis. University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury.
  27. ^ Cooke J, Willis T, Groves R (2005) Impacts of woody weeds on Cumberland Plain Woodland biodiversity. P7 in (Eds. B Pellow, C. Morris, M Bedward, S. Hill, J Sanders, J Clark) The ecology and management of Cumberland Plain habitats: a symposium (University of Western Sydney: Campbelltown).
  28. ^ Keast A (1995) Habitat loss and species loss: the birds of Sydney 50 years ago and now. Australian Zoologist 30, 3-25.
  29. ^ Pellow B (2008) Assessment of the extent, quality and rehabilitation potential of the Endangered Ecological Community ‘Cumberland Plain Woodland’ at the Ingleburn Defence Site. Janet Cosh Herbarium, Wollongong.
  30. ^ Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of NSW by William Charles Wentworth, 1819
  31. ^ Kohen, J. (September 1996). "The Impact of Fire: An Historical Perspective". Australian Plants Online. Society for Growing Australian Plants.

External links

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