Sydney Olympic Park supports 20 hectares of remnant and regenerating Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest, a ‘critically endangered’ ecological community. Thirteen hectares of this community occurs within the woodland of Newington Nature Reserve, while the remainder is within the Buffer Zone of Newington Armory, and within Narawang Wetland.
Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest is an ‘ecological community’ – an integrated assemblage of trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, fungi, mammals, birds, reptiles, invertebrates, micro-organisms and other organisms. It has an open forest structure and originally existed as a forest with either a shrubby or grassy understorey.
Different remnants can have very different flora species compositions – Turpentine occurs throughout the community, but the associated tree, shrub and groundcover species vary with geographical location, local abiotic conditions and time since fire. Some species may at times be present only in the soil seed-bank, with no plants present above-ground. The groundcover contains the greatest species richness.
114 native tree, shrub, grass and herb species have so far been recorded within Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest at the Park, including:
The community includes 28 plant species identified as being of regional conservation significance. It has a high density of hollow-bearing trees (uncommon in other similar remnants of this community), which provide nesting sites for birds and potential microbat roosts. It supports several species of microbats, and small number of brush-tail and ring-tail possums, but does not currently support any native ground-dwelling mammals.
Download a flora species list for a full list of the species recorded within the Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest of Newington Nature Reserve (242K PDF).
Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest is restricted to the Cumberland Plain in the Sydney Basin Bioregion, and occurs primarily on clay soils derived from Wianamatta shale. The biodiversity of the Cumberland Plain is amongst the most threatened in NSW and has been identified as a priority for conservation. Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest is one of 12 bushland communities of the Cumberland Plain listed as endangered under NSW legislation. It is listed as ‘critically endangered’ under Commonwealth legislation - a ‘critically endangered ecological community’ is defined as one that is ‘facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future’.
Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest has become cleared and fragmented across its range due to past and current management practices; many remnants now exist as isolated and highly modified patches within a developed urban environment. Only 0.5% or 1182 hectares of the original pre-European extent of Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest remains intact, and of this only 220 hectares is protected in conservation reserves (including the 13 hectares within Newington Nature Reserve).
The NSW Department of Environment & Climate Change considers remnant Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest within Newington Nature Reserve to be a good representative of the community, however, it is highly isolated; Wallumatta Nature Reserve at Ryde contains the closest neighbouring remnant in good condition.
The Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest also forms part of a rare example of complete estuarine zonation of Eucalypt forest, Casuarina forest, saltmarsh and mangroves.
Historically, Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest at Sydney Olympic Park has undergone much disturbance including timber removal, grazing, mowing to reduce risk of wildfire and armaments explosion (until the 1980s), and construction of roads and clearings. Historical maps and aerial photographs suggest that the remnant became isolated from surrounding bushland in the 1850s. Fire has been actively excluded from the forest since the early 1900s.
Weed control using bush regeneration techniques has been undertaken since 1997, with the result that there is now a very low level of weed infestation. A small area of the forest formerly used by the Department of Defence as a burning pit was remediated and replanted in 1997. Natural regeneration of the forest community has been occurring in parts of the Buffer Zone at Newington Armory since mowing ceased in the 1980s; some parts have regenerated well, while others have regenerated poorly. Dense exotic grass growth is thought to be adversely affecting natural regeneration in some areas, causing smothering, shading, and changed soil nitrogen availability. Methods of triggering natural regeneration are being trialled in these areas. Some areas of the Buffer Zone have been planted with local provenance seedlings over the past few years.
Public access to the forest has been restricted for over a hundred years due to security practices at the former armaments depot within which the remnant was located. Restriction of access has been a significant factor in retaining the forest’s ecological integrity, and access to the forest continues to be tightly restricted for this reason. Stringent hygience requirements apply to persons accessing the forest, to minimise the risk of introducing diseases and weed propagules.
The Site-wide Planting Strategy for Sydney Olympic Park (MacKenzie et al. 1998), committed to using predominantly Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest species in new ‘forest’ and ‘woodland’ plantings created across the Park. These plantings on newly-built landscapes link remnant forest to a larger vegetation network, assisting local ecological processes and flora/fauna interactions.
See Environment Reports for more information on management works in Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest.
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