Werrikimbe National Park - Flora and Fauna

Flora and Fauna

There is a great variety of vegetation here, depending on rainfall and altitude: eucalypt woodlands, coachwoods, southern sassafras, stinging trees, long-leaf waxflowers and yellow carabeens with their flying buttressed trunks. Werrikimbe is home to the rare plants such as Chiloglottis bird orchids, downy guinea flowers and fairy lanterns. These forests also contain the only examples of filmy king fern known to occur in northern New South Wales. The Antarctic beech forest, found at the end of the North Plateau Road, is estimated to be up to 1,000 years old and forms the largest compact southern beech forest in existence. The threatened parva subspecies of Pygmy Cypress Pine occurs on the eastern edge of the Northern Tablelands in the park.

Werrikimbe is the habitat of at least 22 threatened animal species. The rare Hastings River Mouse was considered to be extinct until rediscovered in the park in 1981; it frequents the heathlands and open forest areas near streams. The Australian Brushturkey, Koala, Eastern Whipbird, Powerful Owl, gliders, quolls and lyrebirds may be seen. The park has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it contains one of only five known populations of Rufous Scrub-birds. It also supports Flame and Pale-yellow Robins, Paradise Riflebirds, Green Catbirds, Regent Bowerbirds and Australian Logrunners.