Three Case Studies From Australia
Judith Rawling
Managing Director
Urban Bushland Management Consultants Pty. Ltd.
76 Showground Road
Castle Hill NSW 2154
ubmc@ozemail.com.au
Clearing native vegetation for agricultural uses, for forestry and mining, and in cities and towns for urban development are given as the primary causes of degradation and ultimately of local extinction. Needless to say, when a species or plant community is declared as 'endangered' by the legislation, there will be angst within the community and conflicting demands for land use. Frequently this comes down to head-on conflict between the environmentalist and the developer - whether that developer is planning to build a whole new suburb or just happens to be an individual wanting to build a house on a block of land he has owned for many years.
However, nothing keeps a good developer down, and government rarely discourages commercial interests, especially in areas with high unemployment. To serve these needs, and to attempt to reconcile new development with the environmental legislation, government has at times allowed (if not actively encouraged) the destruction of endangered communities provided that an equal or greater area of compensatory habitat is reconstructed.
While the idea of reconstruction is generally anathema to the hard line conservationist, and many groups are extremely vocal in their opposition, this practice is being increasingly adopted by government and accepted by the community at large. The question is - does it work? Can threatened species be successfully translocated and thrive in their new habitats, and at the extreme end of the spectrum, can whole ecological communities be recreated through replanting and other enhancement works?
This paper presents three case studies from the Sydney Region.
The first study centers on the salvage of threatened flora from burial sites in Rookwood Necropolis, a Victorian burial ground in the grasslands west of Sydney City. Regrowth bushland in the Necropolis has been declared to be part of an endangered ecological community (the Cumberland Plain Woodlands), yet the land is a dedicated burial ground. A salvage plan was prepared, and machinery already on site (used to dig graves) employed to translocate 'divots' of soil containing a suite of species to new locations within the cemetery.
The second study involves the reconstruction of a specialised plant community in a semi-rural area within a major floodplain. The Elderslie Banksia Scrub-Forest - one of only two such local occurrences - had the misfortune to be growing on an 8-metre depth of sand within a mining lease. After much searching for suitable translocation sites, 2 areas not required for mining were selected, and the plant community was reconstructed on bare soil using plants grown from seed and other salvage material.
The third study involves the reconstruction of a degraded and fragmented plant community in an older industrial area. Areas of Cooks River Clay-Plain Scrub Forest have been cleared to allow construction of a new heavy railway line(s) and an inter-state depot. The conditions of consent require the restoration of that plant community, and of the creekline that traverses the site. The challenge of reconstructing bushland between a web of railway lines and within a heavily industrialised area was considerable. One may even seek to challenge the wisdom of doing so - given the high costs involved and the long-term prognosis for its survival under such conditions.
This paper will examine the practical aspects of such ecological restoration work, and it will also discuss a range of social and moral issues inherent in this type of restoration ecology.
