Cumberland Plain - Ecology

Ecology

At the time of European settlement, the Cumberland Plain contained 1,070 km² of woodlands and forests. The westward expansion of Sydney over the plain has placed enormous pressure on the woodlands and other local ecological communities, only 13 per cent of which remain uncleared.

Cleared and used first for agriculture and then for urban development, most of the ecological communities that originally flourished on the plain are now considered endangered. They include:

• Cumberland Plain woodland
• Shale/sandstone transition forest
• Sydney coastal river-flat forest
• Elderslie banksia scrub
• Blue gum high forest
• Sydney turpentine ironbark forest
• Western Sydney dry rainforest
• Castlereagh swamp woodland
• Agnes Banks woodland
• Cooks River/Castlereagh ironbark forest
• Moist shale woodland
• Shale gravel transition forest

Cumberland Plain Woodland, of which around six per cent remains in isolated stands, was the first Australian ecological community to be assigned this status.

Cumberland Plain communities are protected in a number of council reserves, plus the Lower Prospect Canal Reserve, Scheyville National Park, Windsor Downs Nature Reserve, Leacock Regional Park and Mulgoa Nature Reserve and Mount Annan Botanic Garden.