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New national parks and reserves for the Lower Hunter

Environment for living

The Hunter Region is renowned for the diversity of its landscapes and the facilities it offers for residents and visitors. The region encompasses spectacular beaches and dunes, lakes (including Australia's largest coastal saltwater lake, Lake Macquarie), mountains, valleys and forests. All are within easy reach of the State's two largest cities - Newcastle and Sydney.

The Hunter is unique because it is the meeting place of ecosystems from the north, west and east. The region takes in environmentally significant areas of dry sclerophyll shrub forests, estuarine and saline wetlands, heathlands and rainforests. The Hunter's natural resources include coal, timber, minerals and water and, along with other industries such as viticulture, these play an important part in the region's economy. People in the Hunter rightly take great pride in their unique natural environment.

As more people seek to benefit from all that the Hunter offers, the region's population and prosperity are growing, bringing pressure on land to provide housing and employment. As well as the ongoing need for an expanding economy and job growth, there is also a need to protect the environment in this beautiful part of the State.

The NSW Government has therefore developed a 25-year regional strategy for the Lower Hunter. This will guide where development occurs and ensure protection of the Hunter's natural environment.

To complement its regional strategy for development, the Government has also prepared a regional conservation plan which sets out the region's nature conservation priorities for the next 25 years.

The plan identifies areas with high conservation values, and which provide habitat for endangered ecological communities or threatened flora and fauna. The plan proposes a range of mechanisms to protect these areas for the future, including new conservation reserves.

In the coming years, the new reserves will be available for all to enjoy. Whether for bushwalking, camping, birdwatching, cycling, picnicking or simply getting close to nature, they'll be a reward for the Hunter's hard working, productive culture, and a place to refresh and stay fit.

Lower Hunter Regional Conservation Plan 

The NSW Government's Lower Hunter Regional Strategy provides a blueprint for development in the Lower Hunter over the next 25 years. To ensure that development does not have an adverse impact on the natural environment, the Government has adopted the Lower Hunter Regional Conservation Plan (09203Lhrcp.pdf, 2.7MB).

The plan provides a focus for conservation efforts over the next 25 years by identifying priority biodiversity areas in the Lower Hunter.

Stage 1 of the Lower Hunter Regional Conservation Plan delivers significant additions to the national parks and reserves system in the region, including:

• over 20,000 hectares of Government lands with high conservation value have been reserved in perpetuity to form the backbone of major new conservation corridors
   
• around 12,000 hectares of high conservation value private land to be secured for additions to new and existing reserves. See Land dedication agreements in the Department of Planning's Lower Hunter Regional Strategy web page. 

The new reserves

The new reserves will include:

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• a new 'Green Corridor' stretching from Watagans Ranges, through Hexham Swamp to Port Stephens (approximately 14, 600 hectares)
   
• a green buffer on the South Wallarah Peninsula to separate Newcastle from the Central Coast (1250 hectares)
   
• important areas around Port Stephens in the Karuah area (3000 hectares)
   
• a large addition to Werakata National Park near Cessnock (2200 hectares)
   
• two new parks containing under-reserved endangered ecological communities on the Hunter Valley floor near Branxton and at Elderslie (1330 hectares)
   
• a new park encompassing Ellalong Lagoon, which contains important freshwater communities (530 hectares)
   
• other large additions to Wollemi and Yengo national parks (6000 hectares).

Benefits for the community and business

Establishment of the new reserves will benefit the region's economy and promote the community's health and enjoyment. The NSW Government will encourage further input from the Hunter community as it considers opportunities for ecotourism, such as new walking and cycling trails, new camping grounds, birdwatching facilities and new commercial cabins for short stays by visitors and tourists.

The new reserves have been carefully designed to ensure that access to important natural resources is not impaired. Timber supply commitments will not be impacted in any way by the new reserves, and special legislative provisions will ensure that underground water supplies can continue to be accessed by Hunter Water Corporation. Some of the reserves will be State Conservation Areas. This type of reserve has been established so that underground minining (and associated surface access and infrastructure) can take place while ensuring that conservation values are protected.

Enhanced conservation management

The new reserves will provide enhanced protection for Kooragang Island and the Northern Arm of the Hunter River, which are listed under the Ramsar international wetland protection treaty and which have internationally recognised conservation values.

The reserves will also provide important habitat protection for migrating bird species, including those listed in the China-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (CAMBA) and the Japan-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement (JAMBA).

The reserves will offer protection to a wide range of threatened species, including the following.

• The terek sandpiper, which breeds mainly in Russia and Finland, migrates annually to mangrove swamps, tidal mudflats and the seashores of Australia, coastal Africa, India and the Malayan Peninsula. They appear in Australia between August and March or April, returning to the same place each year.
   
• The lesser sand plover breeds in eastern Siberia, southern Mongolia, western China and the Himalayas and migrates to various parts of the southern hemisphere, including coastal areas around Australia. Changes in estuarine water quality, and habitat destruction from tourism and agricultural developments are major threats.
   
• The white-bellied sea eagle is Australia's second largest bird of prey. While not migratory, it is found along the Australian coastline as well as parts of Asia. Sea eagle pairs, which mate for life, require large areas of land and sea to survive. Adult birds will defend an area of up to three square kilometres around the nest against other adults. A further 150 square kilometres are used for hunting. Pairs nest at least two to three kilometres apart, and further where there is little food.
   
• The Watagans Ranges to Port Stephens corridor will provide critical habitat for 27 threatened fauna species including the brush tailed phascogale, spotted tail quoll, koala, squirrel glider as well as a rangeof threatened bird, bat and frog species. Conservation of the Tomago Sandbeds will protect the most significant koala habitat in the Lower Hunter.
   
• The black-tailed godwit, a large sandpiper, breeds in Mongolia and Siberia and visits Australia from August to March each year. Its varied diet includes insects, small crustaceans, molluscs, spiders and tadpoles, as well as seeds and berries in the northern hemisphere. In Australia the birds depend on sand spits, lagoons and mudflats as hunting grounds.
  

As well as fauna, the reserves will also protect threatened plant communities.
 

• Sclerophyll forests are typically Australian and contain plants with hard, short and often spiky leaves. Australia has more sclerophyllous plants than any other continent, largely as a result of low levels of phosphorus in the soil. Typical sclerophyllous plants include eucalypts, tea-trees, boronias, banksias, grevilleas and wattles.
   
  Dry sclerophyll forests stand 10-30 metres tall and have a hard-leaved understorey. They are extremely diverse, with an area of one-tenth of a hectare generally containing 70-100 plant species. An area of rainforest the same size and in the same region would contain fewer than 50 species.
   
• The Lower Hunter Spotted Gum-Ironbark Forest was once widespread in the Lower Hunter Region. Clearing, grazing, development, industrial practices, weed invasion and other disturbances have greatly modified the community with many small pockets of less than 10 hectares remaining, in total an estimated 10 per cent of the pre-colonisation community. Hunter Spotted Gum-Ironbark Forest is now restricted to a fragmented area approximately 65 by 35 kilometres, centred around Cessnock-Beresfield in the Central and Lower Hunter Valley.

Management of the new reserves will focus not only on protecting the natural attributes of the particular reserves but also on ensuring more effective management of pests, weeds and fire.

About the reserves

Watagans Ranges to Port Stephens

The largest of the new reserves covers 14,600 hectares. This area forms the backbone of a new Green Corridor that will ultimately link the Watagans Ranges in the south to Port Stephens in the north.

The reserve will:

• provide habitat for migratory birds, such as the wedgetailed shearwater, sanderlong and black-tailed godwit; for forest species, such as the powerful and sooty owls; and for threatened woodland birds, such as the brown treecreeper and speckled warbler
   
• conserve important areas of dry sclerophyll shrub forests, estuarine and saline wetlands, heathlands and rainforests
   
• conserve endangered Lower Hunter Spotted Gum-Ironbark and Swamp Mahogany Paperbark forests.

Early plans include new facilities for birdwatching, camping, cycling, bushwalking and short-stay cabins. A State Conservation Area to be established on Ash Island will allow for continued development of the City Farm and other suitable recreational activities.

South Wallarah Peninsula

Around 1250 hectares of land will be added to the Wallarah National Park. This addition will provide a corridor between Lake Macquarie and the ocean and close the gap between Wallarah National Park and Munmorah State Conservation Area.

The privately-owned bush around Catherine Hill Bay and Nords Wharf will be opened for public enjoyment and protected forever.

Port Stephens - Karuah

The addition of 3000 hectares to the Karuah and Worimi nature reserves will:

• protect Paperbark Swamp Forest and coastal wetlands
   
• provide habitat for birds such as the grey knot, white-bellied sea eagle and the migratory lesser sand plover and terek sandpiper, which are listed under international agreements
   
• protect important foreshore areas which will help maintain water quality for the local oyster industry and recreational activities.

Werakata National Park - Cessnock

The addition of 2200 hectares of land to the Werakata National Park will:

• create a green corridor more than 13 kilometres in length across the Hunter Valley floor, linking ranges to the east and west
   
• protect important stands of endangered Lower Hunter Spotted Gum-Ironbark Forest 
   
• provide habitat for threatened woodland bird species, such as the swift parrot, diamond firetail and regent honeyeater.

Two new reserves at Branxton and Elderslie

Two additions to Belford National Park near Branxton and at Elderslie will total 1330 hectares. They will protect three listed and under-reserved endangered ecological communities on the Hunter Valley floor, including:

• large areas of Lower Hunter regionally significant spotted gum-ironbark forest
  
• limited occurrences of River-flat Eucalypt Forest on coastal floodplains
  
• limited occurrences of Hunter Lowlands Redgum Forest.

There are also occurrences of slaty red gum in the area, a species listed as vulnerable by the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995.

Ellalong Lagoon

Situated immediately south-east of the township of Paxton, the 530 hectare Ellalong Lagoon Conservation Area will protect a large area of endangered Hunter Lowland Redgum Forest and small areas of River-flat Eucalypt Forest on coastal floodplain. The lagoon itself supports a population of green and golden bell-frogs while there are records of Bynoe's wattle (Acacia bynoeana) in the south of the area.

Wollemi and Yengo national parks

Wollemi and Yengo national parks contain high quality examples of Sydney Hinterland Dry Sclerophyll Forest and, further to the east, Hunter-Macleay Dry Sclerophyll Forest. The addition of nearly 6000 hectares to the parks will further enhance biodiversity values in the region. Consolidation and connectivity of habitat will ensure protection of threatened species and communities not adequately reserved. Some of these new areas are adjacent to identified wilderness and their management for conservation will further boost the values for which this region is renowned.

Implementation

The reservation of government land transfers has been finalised and the new reserves came into effect on 1 July 2007. Private land transfers will be implemented under staged agreements with the landowners over the next one to five years.