We have experience restoring a variety of sites with respect to vegetation type, weeds encountered and causes of degradation. We carry out approximately 150 contracts in bushland reserves and reconstructed areas each year, principally throughout the Sydney Basin and lower Blue Mountains region. Our clients include government departments, local councils, State owned authorities and private land owners.
Recent projects include:
- Hawkesbury Sandstone vegetation communities – many sites including those in Blue Mountains, North Sydney, Willoughby, Warringah, Ku-ring-gai, Ryde, Hunters Hill, Lane Cove, Kogarah, Rockdale and Sutherland LGAs. Sites have included a variety of vegetation types including coastal vegetation, heath lands, woodland and open forest areas through to the closed forest found on creek lines.
- Blue Gum High Forest - a number of reserves in northern Sydney e.g. Ludovic Blackwood Sanctuary, Beecroft; Tim Brownscombe Reserve, Galston.
- Spotted Gum Forest - Stella James House, Avalon.
- Littoral Rainforest communities - sites in Sutherland.
- Cumberland Plain Woodland – many sites including Alpha Park, Greystanes; Orphan School Creek reserves, Fairfield; Parramatta Park.
- Sydney Coastal River Flat Forest – Port Hacking Road Reserve, Sylvania.
- Cooks River / Castlereagh Ironbark Forest – remnants at Campsie, Yennora, Holroyd, Beverly Grove and Bankstown reserves.
- Sydney Freshwater Wetlands – Botany Wetlands, Botany.
- Coastal sand-dunes – Yarra Point, Yarra Bay.
- Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub – NSW Golf Club, La Perouse and the Bird Sanctuary at Centennial Park.
- Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest – Carrs Bush, Galston; Greenway Park, Cherrybrook; Yaralla, Concord West.
- Coastal Saltmarsh in the Sydney Basin - Eve Street Wetland, Arncliffe; saltmarsh along the Great North Walk, Hunters Hill; Half Moon Bay, Drummoyne; Field of Mars Reserve, Ryde; Jackson Place, Earlwood, Jackson Place Saltmarsh, Earlwood.
- Southern Sydney Sheltered Forest - Carss Bush Park
- Sydney Sandstone Ridgetop Woodland – Kyle Williams Reserve.
- Duffys Forest Ecological Community – Wakehurst Parkway remnant, Frenchs Forest.
Case Studies
Bush regeneration projects
The National Trust carries out projects seeking to improve catchment health. The project sites are reserves located along drainage lines forming part of the catchment management system. Our primary aim for these kinds of projects is to work with land owners to restore ecological processes in remnants of bushland heavily impacted by problems such as vegetation clearing and fragmentation, altered storm water regimes and increased pollutants that lead to loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and reduced water quality. Project sites typically contain several core bushland areas linked by degraded creek-lines and planted buffer areas. Work on both the reserves and the connecting riparian corridors restores health to both the ecological and the hydrological cycles.
Our management staff plan projects strategically- prioritizing and scheduling tasks and ensuring they are implemented efficiently and effectively. We use a variety of weed control methods including manual removal, brushcutting, broad area or spot spraying with a range of herbicides. On particularly degraded sites mulching, or matting followed by revegetation is used to exclude weeds and stabilise the site. Weed control activities are timed at a frequency and conducted at intensity appropriate to the site. Projects are conducted with consideration to habitat for resident fauna and ensuring safety and amenity for the local community. Experience, good training and expert supervision ensure our regeneration teams have the level of skill required to ensure the projects objectives are achieved and long term benefits are made.
National Trust teams carried out such activities during a project at Quarry Branch Creek in Northmead in 2009-10. This involved the restoration of 11.6 ha of bushland along approximately 4 km of creekline. The vegetation along the creek is predominantly Turpentine-Ironbark Margin Forest. Sites within the project area were at varying stages in the recovery process. Activities ranged from primary weed control involving the removal of dense woody weed infestations, through secondary control of weeds germinating along with native species after the removal of exotic cover. Finally, the vegetation dominance shifts from exotic to native species. Our teams used a range of methods including brushcutting for dense weed infestations, targeted control of the most aggressive /invasive species and spot spraying to control weeds before they mature and reproduce. This work further consolidated the native vegetation, significantly contributed to improvement of the resilience of the site and improved accessibility of the public to further their appreciation of these reserves.
Multi faceted projects
The National Trust has undertaken an ongoing, multifaceted project along the Wolli Creek at Earlwood over the last few years. Weer thad a long working relationship with the local community group, Wolli Creek Preservation Society (WCPS), being contracted by them for bush regeneration work in the area. WCPS and the Trust supervised corporate volunteer work in badly degraded remnant bushland along Undercliffe Track at Jackson Place through Landcare grants. This project was very successful with 1800 m² of bushland, cleared of weeds by corporate volunteers. The Trust and WCPS provided orientation presentations to corporate volunteers prior to the community day, highlighting the significance of the area and the general nature of the work to the intending participants.
Following the Landcare funded project, WCPS secured a 3 year Environmental Trust Grant for bushland restoration of the Undercliffe Track to build on the previous work. The National Trust was contracted to provide a professional bush regeneration team to restore a new area along the track and to supervise a Bushcare group for secondary weed removal and maintenance of the area worked by the corporate groups.
The Trust is also working at the Jackson Place Saltmarsh on the banks of Wolli Creek for WCPS. This project aims to improve the integrity of a very diverse area of Sydney Basin Coastal Saltmarsh merging into Phragmites Reedland by removing exotics commonly found on raised areas within the saltmarsh and reed zones.
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The National Trust of Australia (NSW)
Bushland Management Services
ABN 82 491 958 802
Address GPO Box 518, SYDNEY NSW 2001
P ______(02) 9258 0176
F ______(02) 9252 1264
Email: bms@nationaltrust.com.au |
