Landcare and Bush Regeneration

Our Natural Environment

Landcare and Bushcare Groups on Campus

Hawkesbury Remnants Landcare Group

Hawkesbury Remnants Landcare group was formed in early 2009 and is made up of UWS staff and student volunteers who meet once a month to restore the Cumberland Plain Woodlands on the Hawkesbury campus. For details or to join contact the Office of Sustainability at sustainability@uws.edu.au.

Kingswood Bush Care Group

Kingswood Bush Care group is dedicated to the care and restoration of the critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland on Kingswood campus. Learn about native plants and animals, gain new skills and meet new people. Kingswood bush care group meets every second Wednesday of the month on Kingswood campus. For details or to join contact Erst Carmichael at e.carmichael@uws.edu.au.

Cuddle a Cumberland Bush Care Group

Cuddle a Cumberland is a new small landcare group at Bankstown. UWS Bankstown campus has approximately 1.5 hectares of remnant Shale Gravel Transition Forest. The group is aiming to promote and educate UWS Bankston of the endangered ecological community, the Cumberland Plain Woodland, to protect it from development and etenction. For details or to join contact the Office of Sustainability at sustainability@uws.edu.au.

It's not just Bush

UWS Hawkesbury has the third largest stand of Cumberland Plain Woodland in Greater Western Sydney and this is of increasing importance. Cumberland Plain Woodland is a unique assemblage of plants – from large trees to small ground orchids, rushes and grasses and its remnants are part of the distinctive landscape character of the Hawkesbury region. Remnants areas can contain trees that form hollows to shelter smaller native animals such as the threatened powerful owl, parrots, possums and tiny insectivorous bats.

Cumberland Plain Woodland is a native vegetation community in Western Sydney, listed as a Critically Endangered Ecological Community. Clearing for development and farming has left only small patches behind. Today less than 10% still remains.

UWS has a number of other smaller Cumberland Plain Woodland sites on our Penrith, Bankstown and Campbelltown campuses.

Wetland Weed Reduction

UWS is committed to the sustainability and preservation of wetlands, and is fortunate enough to have three unique priority conservation wetlands that form part of a Critically Endangered Ecological Community on its Hawkesbury campus.

Capital Works and Facilities (CWF) and the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Authority (HNCMA) have formed a collaborative project aimed at improving the condition of three wetlands over the next three years. These wetlands cover approximately 30 hectares and offer a unique regeneration opportunity due to the large size of the remnants with relatively few disturbances and in most places an unmodified soil profile.

UWS environmental supervisor Dr Lyn Anderson states ''weeds are a major threat to the native vegetation communities in Western Sydney. This project will help to reduce this threat on these sites, protecting the biodiversity and habitats present''.

Although all zones offer excellent regeneration potential there are significant weed issues within and surrounding the contract areas. For more information on the UWS Wetlands project please contact Dr Lyn Anderson at Capital Works and Facilities.

(Melaleuca Wetland on Hawkesbury Campus - photo taken by Kim Armstrong)

Cumberland Plain Remnant Bushland Management Plan

On Hawkesbury campus Capital Works and Facilities are also working in collaboration with the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority and leading providers of environmental management and bush restoration services to eradicate noxious weeds (e.g. blackberry), control environmental weeds and eradicate feral pest species.

They are also working with bush regeneration contractors to remove noxious weeds from the Remnant Cumberland Plain bushland on the Campbelltown campus.