Coastal Saltmarsh is an ‘ecological community’ of the intertidal zone of estuaries and lagoons. Sydney Olympic Park supports 20 hectares of remnant and regenerating saltmarsh, spread across seven parkland precincts - Wanngal Wetland (Newington Nature Reserve), Badu Mangroves, Haslams Reach, Haslams Creek Flats, Newington Armory, Bicentennial Park and Nuwi Wetland. Individual saltmarsh plants are also found in other parts of the Park.
The saltmarsh community is an integrated assemblage of plants, animals and other organisms. Plants of the saltmarsh community at Sydney Olympic Park include:
Elevation and hydrology affects species composition at particular locations – Sarcocornia quinqueflora dominates at lower, and hence more frequently flooded levels, whereas Juncus kraussei and Wilsonia backhousei prefer less frequent inundation.
Saltmarsh provides habitat and food for invertebrates such as crabs, insects, molluscs and spiders, as well as for fish, birds and bats. It is a breeding and nursery ground for crabs and other marine life, and filters nutrients that would otherwise enter estuarine waters. Saltmarshes at Sydney Olympic Park provide habitat for migratory shorebirds protected under international treaties, and for one of the two known remaining Sydney populations of the White-fronted Chat.
The saltmarshes of Sydney Olympic Park can be seen at:
Help to protect and conserve the saltmarsh by staying on the paths and do not pick saltmarsh plants.
Saltmarshes generally, and Wilsonia backhousei in particular, were identified as species of conservation significance in the early stages of Sydney Olympic Park’s redevelopment, and many years prior to their listing as threatened species and resultant legal protection.
Remediation works in the 1990s included several major estuary restoration projects. Remnant saltmarsh was conserved and a nursery established to provide local provenance seed and cuttings used in replanting programs. The concrete-lined channel of Haslams Creek was replaced with a new creekbed and newly-built tidal mudflats were planted with saltmarsh. Tidal flushing was restored to the wetlands of Newington Nature Reserve to improve the health of the wetland communities, and saltmarsh was planted along a newly-built fishway in Bicentennial Park.
The Authority has developed a saltmarsh management plan that has been approved under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. The Plan aims to achieve no net loss of saltmarsh, from natural or anthropogenic causes. Current management actions within saltmarsh communities include:
Sydney Olympic Park supports the largest remaining saltmarsh community on the Parramatta River, and the second-largest within the Sydney Basin.
It contains the largest Sydney population of Wilsonia backhousei, and two species of restricted distribution and local conservation significance - Lampranthus tegens and Halosarcia pergranulata. The saltmarsh also forms part of a rare example of complete estuarine zonation of Cumberland Plain woodland, Casuarina forest, saltmarsh and mangroves.
Coastal saltmarsh communities are undergoing widespread global and regional decline, and are protected under New South Wales legislation:
Parts of the Park’s saltmarsh community is mapped as an ‘environment conservation area’ under the Sydney Regional Environmental Plan 24. Saltmarsh within Newington Nature Reserve is subject to provisions of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 regarding nature reserves.
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