Sydney Olympic Park supports a microcosm of native plants, animals and ecological communities that were once widespread in Sydney but are now quite rare in urban areas.
The NSW Sydney Olympic Park Authority Act 2001 requires the Sydney Olympic Park Authority to implement the principles of ecologically sustainable development in exercising its functions, and identifies protection and enhancement of the Park's natural heritage as a key function of the Authority. Through implementation of the Environmental Guidelines, Sydney Olympic Park Authority is committed to the following objectives for biodiversity conservation:
The Park's rich biodiversity includes over 400 native plant species and over 200 native vertebrate animal species. It includes 3 endangered ecological communities, over 180 species of native bird, 7 species of frog, 10 species of bat, 10 species of reptiles, native fish species, many thousands of species of invertebrates, protected marine vegetation, and 3 threatened plant species. This high species diversity and abundance in the geographic centre of a large and modern city contributes to Sydney Olympic Park's high ecological, aesthetic and educational values.
The habitats of the Park are a mix of recovering remnant estuarine and forest communities, along with extensive areas of terrestrial plantings and constructed freshwater wetlands still establishing on newly remediated and fabricated landscapes built in the late 1990s. Planning, design and construction of these new landscapes incorporated principles relating to the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity, and some landscape and planting elements were constructed or conserved specificaly to promote biodiversity.
Some of the species and ecological communities dependent upon the Park's habitats were once widespread in Sydney but are now uncommon in urban areas. These are of conservation significance at a local, regional, state, national or international level. The Park's habitats also provide a stepping stone for nomadic fauna species moving between urban habitats, and a drought refuge for species from western New South Wales.
Nearly half (300 hectares) of the Park provides habitat for listed threatened species, protected marine vegetation and endangered ecological communities which are all protected under State or Commonwealth legislation. The 47-hectare Newington Nature Reserve, containing remnant forest and wetlands and gazetted under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974, lies within the Park. The estuarine wetlands of Newington Nature Reserve and Badu Mangroves, totalling 100 hectares, are both listed on the Directory of important Wetlands in Australia.
Download map of Key Habitat Areas of Sydney Olympic Park (422KB PDF)
Dowload records of Threatened species and communities at Sydney Olympic Park (17KB PDF)
Sydney Olympic Park is located within the Parramatta River catchment of the Sydney Basin Bioregion, and its species and communities are part of the larger ecological systems of these regions. Its biodiversity is subject to the threats and pressures operating at these regional scales - such as urbanisation and resultant decrease in ecological integrity and extent, climate change, sea level rise, water quality, pests and diseases.
In ecological terms, Sydney Olympic Park is virtually an island - it is physically disconnected from most other flora and fauna habitats by surrounding urban development, and subject to the same ecological threats to which island ecosystems are especially prone. These include edge effects, low or zero rates of external recruitment by many species, and low recovery rates from localised perturbations (including anthropogenic impacts).
Other pressures on the Park's biodiversity include the constructed and altered nature of the Park's habitats, their immaturity (most are less than ten years old) and the Park's many competing land use objectives. The Park's habitats are subject to increasing human impact and increasing demand as a local and regional leisure destination as the Park continues to evolve, and residential and commercial development occurs within and around it.
The nature of the Park's habitats - their small size, constructed and altered nature, and many competing management objectives, means that ongoing active and adaptive management is needed to retain their ecological values. Stringent conditions are applied to maintenance works and visitor programs within ecologically-sensitive areas of the Park to ensure continued conservation of the Park's biodiversity.
Ten species and communities are identified as 'priority species' for conservation and are the focus of specific management programs. These are:
For the latest ecological news from the habitats of Sydney Olympic Park, see Ecospotlight, updated each spring, summer, autumn, and winter.