The Cumberland Plain Woodland, also known as Cumberland Plain BushlandRecovering bushland on the Cumberland Plain: best practice guidelines for the management and restoration of bushland Sydney, N.S.W.: Dept. of Environment and Conservation (NSW), 2005 , 94 p. : ill., maps (some col.). Ruth Burton. National Library of Australia. 2 August 2005. Retrieved 25 March 2022. and Western Sydney woodland,Western Sydney woodland Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, NSW Government. Retrieved 4 September 2022. is a grassy woodland community found predominantly in Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that comprises an open tree canopy, a groundcover with grasses and herbs, usually with layers of shrubs and/or small trees.Benson DH, Howell J (2002) Cumberland Plain Woodland ecology then and now: interpretations and implications from the work of Robert Brown and others. Cunninghamia 7, 631-650.
Situated in the Cumberland Plain, the Cumberland Plain Woodland (CPW) is a critically endangered savanna that features dry sclerophyll woodlands, grasslands and/or forests, reminiscent of Mediterranean forests. According to Office of Environment and Heritage, the community falls predominantly within the Coastal Valley Grassy Woodlands region,Coastal Valley Grassy Woodlands NSW Office of Environment and Heritage which are part of the Grassy Woodlands formation found in the eastern corridor of New South Wales.Grassy woodlands NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
Currently, less than 6% of the Woodlands remain in small parts distributed across the western suburbs of Sydney, totaling only around 6400 hectares. Cumberland Plain Woodland was listed as an Endangered Ecological Community under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 in June 1997. The greatest threats to the Cumberland Plain Woodland include land clearing for agriculture, urban sprawl and the introduction of harmful weed species.Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (NSW Act of Parliament, online edition).
Geography
In 1877, Cumberland Plain Woodlands covered 107,000 hectares and filled around 30% of the Sydney Basin. At the time of European land exploration of Australia, the Cumberland Plain contained 1,070 km² of woodlands and forests. The westward expansion of Sydney over the plain has placed enormous pressure on the woodlands and other local ecological communities, only 6% of which remain uncleared.Benson DH, Howell J (1990a) ‘Taken for granted: the bushland of Sydney and its suburbs.’ Kangaroo Press and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Tozer (2003) estimated that only 11,054 ha of the ecosystem’s pre-European extent remained, representing an average historical clearing rate of 1.2–1.33% per year and a total loss of 92–94% of Cumberland Plain Woodland. Areas with low tree cover but without rural residential or urban development could potentially add a further 9,588 ha, reducing the estimated historical decline to 83.5%. Another 6,271 ha occurs in low-tree-cover areas that have been developed for rural residential or urban use, which would lower the decline to approximately 78.5%.
Cumberland Plain Woodland occurs in Sydney's western suburbs, occupying the most fertile and gently undulating part of the Sydney Basin. As a result, it has experienced extensive clearing and alteration and is now considered one of the most depleted grassy woodland ecosystems in New South Wales. Some parts of the community may have a forest structure. The Woodland features an open tree canopy, groundcover prevailed by grasses and herbs, sometimes with layers of shrubs and small trees.Benson DH (1992) The natural vegetation of the Penrith 1:100 000 map sheet. Cunninghamia 2, 541-596. The plain is made up of eucalypt woodland with a grassy undergrowth and sclerophyllous (hard-leaved) shrub stratum, demarcating with the heath and forest communities of the sandstone plateaus that surround the plain.Tozer M. (2003). ‘The native vegetation of the Cumberland Plain, western Sydney: systematic classification and field identification of communities’. Cunninghamia. 8, 1: 1–75. The biotic community is mostly found on flat or hilly terrains up to about 350 m in elevation, but it may also be present on locally precipitous sites and at slightly higher elevations. The soils of the plain are infertile by world standards, but are not so by Australian standards. The ecoregion contains clay soils derived from Wianamatta Shale to the west of Sydney CBD, where it receives 750–900 mm of annual rainfall.
Locations
Spanning through the cities of Fairfield, Liverpool, Blacktown, Cumberland, Campbelltown, Camden and Penrith, with the cities of Canterbury-Bankstown, Hawkesbury, Parramatta and Wollondilly being on the peripheries, they contain approximately 2000 ha (one-fifth) of the remaining Cumberland Plain Woodland. Its range does not extend to slightly wetter Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest, or high-rainfall ridges (such as Blue Gum High Forest in the upper North Shore), which are geologically on the Hornsby Plateau.Benson DH, Howell J (1990b) Sydney’s vegetation 1788-1988: utilization, degradation and rehabilitation. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 16, 115-127.
Examples of the remnants can be seen at Defence Establishment Orchard Hills, Scheyville National Park, Rosford Street Reserve, Brenan Park, Central Gardens Nature Reserve, Fairfield Park Precinct, Prospect Hill, Prospect Nature Reserve, Western Sydney Regional Park, Wetherill Park Nature Reserve and Chipping Norton Lake, among other places.Clarke PJ (2000) Plant population processes in temperate woodlands in eastern Australia – premises for management. Pp 248-270 in (Eds. R J Hobbs and C J Yates) Temperate eucalypt woodlands in Australia: biology, conservation, management and restoration (Surrey Beatty & Sons: Chipping Norton). Western Sydney Airport, currently under construction at Badgerys Creek, New South Wales, required the clearing of a large area of Cumberland Plain Woodland. Environmental offsets have been announced to ensure the protection, restoration and preservation of the woodland. The Biodiversity Offset Delivery Plan was announced on 24 August 2018 and included:
Restoration and management of over 900 hectares of Cumberland Plain Woodland at Defence Establishment Orchard Hills Purchase of BioBanking credits through the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Scheme Other compensatory measures.
Ecological communities
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Cumberland Plain Woodland within the temperate woodlands group of the savannas and grasslands biome. In vegetation structure, Cumberland Plain Woodland resembles some forms of savanna and open woodland, being characterised by a relatively open tree canopy above a predominantly grassy and herbaceous ground layer. In vegetation structure, Cumberland Plain Woodland is characterised by an open tree canopy above a predominantly grassy and herbaceous ground layer. Trees are generally well spaced, with woodland on the Cumberland Plain characterised by a projected foliage cover of less than 30 per cent.
Comparable open-canopy vegetation structures occur in other parts of the world. The dehesas of the Iberian Peninsula are open woodlands characterised by scattered oak trees and a predominantly herbaceous or grassy ground layer. In the eastern Mediterranean, Tabor oak communities in Israel and Jordan can similarly form open park-forest, with widely dispersed trees accompanied by abundant herbaceous vegetation. Comparable vegetation structures also occur in African savanna and woodland regions. In South Sudan, for example, vegetation mapping distinguishes savanna with 10–30% tree-canopy cover from woodland with 30–50% canopy cover, both of which are widespread in the country.
The Cumberland Plain Woodland, classed under Coastal Valley Grassy Woodlands, includes these ecological communities, with some overlapping and others plainly being sub-regions of the Woodland:Keith DA (2004) ‘Ocean shores to desert dunes: the native vegetation of New South Wales and the ACT.’ NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, Sydney. Cumberland Shale Hills Woodland – It is one of the widespread grassy woodland communities within Cumberland Plain Woodland and is restricted to mean annual rainfall of between 750 and 900 millimetres and elevations between 50 and 350 metres above sea level. An open woodland mainly containing grey box (Eucalyptus moluccana and Eucalyptus microcarpa) and forest red gum trees, it is mostly prevalent in Prospect near Prospect Reservoir, and also on the western edges of Fairfield City, Campbelltown LGA and Liverpool LGA.Keith D, Pellow B, Tozer M (2005) Can’t see the biodiversity for the trees? Implications of alternative landscape models for conservation of Cumberland Plain Woodlands. P6 in (Eds. B Pellow, C. Morris, M Bedward, S. Hill, J Sanders, J Clark) The ecology and management of Cumberland Plain habitats: a symposium (University of Western Sydney: Campbelltown). Cumberland Moist Shale Woodlands – Located in protected areas that are intermediate between Cumberland Plain Woodland on drier areas and the Western Sydney Dry Rainforest, the community has waxy-leaved shrubs and small trees in the understorey with a ground cover of herbs, fleshy twiners and grasses, which are usually absent in the surrounding grassy woodlands. Similar to its subgroup Western Sydney Dry Rainforest due to its moist habit, some of its species would include hairy clerodendrum (Clerodendrum tomentosum) and slender grape (Cayratia clematidea). Although most of its habitat has been cleared for housing and urbanization, where only 604 ha remain intact, there are pockets of it in the southwest parts of the Fairfield City Council area, northwest of Liverpool near Green Valley, Cecil Hills and the Wollondilly LGA.James T, Benson DH, Howell J (1999) Rare plants of western Sydney. Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Western Sydney Dry Rainforest – Predominantly cleared within the Cumberland Plain and a component of Moist Shale Woodlands, it occurs on the secured clay-rich soils of the wavy hills and ranges of western Sydney in around Abbotsbury near Calmsley Hill City Farm, and areas in the MacArthur region to the southwest, albeit in a very small isolated pocket. Grey myrtle (Backhousia myrtifolia) is the most prevalent species with a ground cover being sparsely made up of herbs and ferns. Other salient species include fig (Ficus rubiginosa), wild quince (Alectryon subcinereus) and whalebone tree (Streblus brunonianus). The rainforest canopy may include spotted gums, wattles and paperbarks. Shrubs such as hairy clerodendrum (Clerodendrum tomentosum) and large mock olive (Notelaea longifolia) are also present. Rainfall is usually below 900 millimeters per annum in the rainforests within Cumberland Plain.Fairley A and Waterhouse D 2005, West Sydney Wild – Exploring Nature in Sydney’s Western Suburbs. Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd, Dural, NSW.