The Castlereagh Nature Reserve is a

protected Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although th ...

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

located in the western suburbs of Sydney in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The reserve is situated west of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the " cit ...

, approximately north-east of and located near the townships of and . In 1960, was reclaimed for use as a Child Welfare Training School, and in 1971, was reclaimed for the establishment of a liquid waste disposal facility. The boundary of the reserve is marked by The Northern Road to the west, by Llandilo Road to the east, rural properties to the south and by the Castlereagh Waste Management Centre to the north. The nature reserve was formerly Castlereagh State Forest and was managed as a production forest from 1917 to 1988, then as a demonstration forest from 1988 to 1995.

Features

Geology

The Castlereagh Nature Reserve contains a geographically restricted substrate of Tertiary alluvials producing clays, sand, gravel and shales at depth. Parts of the reserve support

Cumberland Plain The Cumberland Plain, an IBRA biogeographic region, is a relatively flat region lying to the west of Sydney CBD in New South Wales, Australia. Cumberland Basin is the preferred physiographic and geological term for the low-lying plain of the ...

Woodland vegetation. The nature reserve is between above sea level and is predominantly flat with broad, shallow depressions forming a sparse drainage network. Small, shallow lakes form after wet weather to the north of the reserve where gravels and other alluvials have been extracted when the reserve was a production forest.

Flora

Open forest occurs on clay soils and is dominated by broad-leaved ironbark

Eucalyptus fibrosa ''Eucalyptus fibrosa'', commonly known as the red ironbark, broad-leaved red ironbark or broad-leaved red ironbark, is a species of medium-sized to tall tree endemic to eastern Australia. It has grey to black ironbark, lance-shaped to egg-shape ...

sap. Fibrosa with occasional mugga

ironbark Ironbark is a common name of a number of species in three taxonomic groups within the genus ''Eucalyptus'' that have dark, deeply furrowed bark. Instead of being shed annually as in many of the other species of ''Eucalyptus'', the dead bark accum ...

Eucalyptus

sideroxylon ''Sideroxylon'' is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1753. They are collectively known as bully trees. The generic name is derived from the Greek words σιδηρος (''sideros''), meaning "iron", and ...

, thin-leaved stringybark Eucalyptus enugeniodes, woollybutt Eucalyptus longifolia and Scribbly Gum Eucalyptus sclerophylla. Threatened plant species found in the nature reserve include Dillwynia tenuifolia, Pultenea parviflora, Acacia bynoeana, dwarf casuarina Allocasuarina glareicola, nodding geebung Persoonia nutans and Micromyrtus minutiflora. The reserve is relatively free of significant weed infestations. A few slash pines Pinus elliotti are found in the northern section of the reserve from when of Castlereagh State Forest was used for trial plantings of pines in the 1920s and 1930s. Heavy harvesting of ironbark during the Second World War, illegal timber collection and numerous fires generally thinned the forest, resulting in no mature trees in some areas.

Fauna

The nature reserve is home to a diverse range of mammals including sugar gliders, ''Petaurus breviceps''; brush-tailed possum, ''

Trichosurus vulpecula The common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula'', from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus ''Phalangista'') is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae, native to Aust ...

''; and eastern grey kangaroo, '' Macropus giganteus''. The eastern brown snake, ''

Pseudonaja textilis The eastern brown snake (''Pseudonaja textilis''), often referred to as the common brown snake, is a species of highly venomous snake in the Family (biology), family Elapidae. The species is native to eastern and central Australia and southern N ...

''; red-bellied black snake, ''Psuedechris porphriacus''; lace monitor, ''Varanus varius''; and a number of frog species including the endangered green and golden bell frog, ''

Litoria aurea The green and golden bell frog (''Ranoidea aurea''), also named the green bell frog, green and golden swamp frog and green frog, is a species of ground-dwelling tree frog native to eastern Australia. Despite its classification and climbing abi ...

''; also reside within the reserve.

Environmental impacts

In 1987 the area around the old gravel pits was planted with over 3,000 seedlings but ultimately the plantings were unsuccessful. Due to past logging and other plantings, parts of the reserve are dominated by immature regrowth and has modified

species composition Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the abundances of the species or their relative ab ...

and abundance. An area of to the north western boundary of the nature reserve adjacent to the Castlereagh Waste Management Centre was previously used as an area for the disposal of heavy metals including zinc, cadmium and lead. The contaminated soil was removed in 1996 and replaced with clean local fill. Groundwater quality is monitored at six sampling stations by Waste Services. Fire has been a major factor in shaping the flora in the reserve. The last major fire occurred in 1982 and burnt over 75 percent of the reserve, which has altered the understory of the forest and woodland communicates. Subsequently, a fire in November 2016 that started near The Northern Road Londonderry burnt through 336 ha of the nature reserve and was contained at Government Road, Berkshire Park.

Accidents

In 1957 a Vampire fighter jet crashed into Castlereagh State Forest however the Flying Officer was able to eject safely.

References

{{Nature reserves of New South Wales , state=autocollapse Nature reserves in Sydney Hawkesbury River Protected areas established in 1995 1995 establishments in Australia