The Richmond Woodlands comprise some 329 km² of

eucalypt Eucalypt is any woody plant with Capsule (fruit), capsule fruiting bodies belonging to one of seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

remnants close to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. They lie at the foot of the Blue Mountains on the north-western fringe of the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

metropolitan area.

Description

The

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) boundary is defined by patches of habitat suitable for

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

regent honeyeater The regent honeyeater (''Anthochaera phrygia'') is a critically endangered bird endemic to southeastern Australia. It is commonly considered a flagship species within its range, with the efforts going into its conservation having positive effec ...

s and

swift parrot The swift parrot (''Lathamus discolor''), also known by the palawa kani name swift waylitja, is a species of broad-tailed parrot, found only in southeastern Australia. The species breeds in Tasmania during the summer and migrates north to south ...

s, centred on the woodlands between the

Agnes Banks Agnes Banks is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Agnes Banks is north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of the City of Penrith and City of Hawkesbury. It is part of the Gre ...

Windsor Downs Windsor Downs is a suburb of Western Sydney, within the City of Hawkesbury in the state of New South Wales, Australia, established in the early 1990s. The suburb is located 53 km north west from the CBD of Sydney Sydney is the capital ...

and Castlereagh Nature Reserves, and extending south to Penrith and north-east to encompass

Scheyville National Park The Scheyville National Park () is a protected national park that is located in the northwestern suburbs of Sydney in New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The national park is situated approximately northwest of the Sydney central busine ...

. It is adjacent to the forested hills of the Greater Blue Mountains IBA.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Richmond Woodlands. Downloaded from on 28/09/2011.

Flora and fauna

Plants

The woodlands are dominated by an overstorey of coastal grey box, narrow-leaved ironbark and

forest red gum ''Eucalyptus tereticornis'', commonly known as forest red gum, blue gum or red irongum, is a species of tree that is native to eastern Australia and southern New Guinea. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in grou ...

. Other trees include scribbly gum, narrow-leaved apple and the endangered ''

Allocasuarina glareicola ''Allocasuarina glareicola'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Casuarinaceae and is endemic to a restricted part of New South Wales. It is an erect, dioecious or monoecious shrub that has branchlets up to long, the leaves reduced to ...

''. There is an understorey of sweet bursaria, ''

Pultenaea violacea ''Pultenaea'' is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, and is endemic to Australia. Plants in this genus are shrubs with simple leaves and orange or yellow flowers similar to others in the family but with the ...

'' and black sheoak, with

groundcover Groundcover or ground cover is any plant that grows low over an area of ground, which protects the topsoil from erosion and drought. In a terrestrial ecosystem, the ground cover forms the layer of vegetation below the shrub layer known as the ...

kangaroo grass } ''Themeda triandra'' is a species of C4 carbon fixation, perennial tussock-forming grass widespread in Africa, Australia, Asia and the Pacific. In Australia it is commonly known as kangaroo grass and in East Africa and South Africa it is known ...

, '' Echinopogan caespitosus'', ''

Astrida vagans Butare (), also known as Huye and formerly known as Astrida, is a city with a population of 62,823 (2022 census) in the Southern Province of Rwanda and the capital of Huye district. It is the seventh largest town in Rwanda by population. Histor ...

'', weeping grass and barbed-wire grass.

Birds

The site has been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

as an IBA because it regularly supports significant numbers of regent honeyeaters and swift parrots, as well as many other woodland bird species. It holds one of the only two remaining populations of

red-capped robin The red-capped robin (''Petroica goodenovii'') is a small passerine bird native to Australia. Found in drier regions across much of the continent, it inhabits shrubland, scrub and open woodland. Like many brightly coloured robins of the family ...

s in the Sydney region.

Other animals

Mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s found in the IBA include

sugar glider The sugar glider (''Petaurus breviceps'') is a small, omnivorous, arboreal, and nocturnal gliding possum. The common name refers to its predilection for sugary foods such as sap and nectar and its ability to glide through the air, much lik ...

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

eastern grey kangaroo The eastern grey kangaroo (''Macropus giganteus'': gigantic large-foot; also great grey kangaroo or forester kangaroo) is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. Although a large ''M. giganteus ...

bush rat The bush rat or Australian bush rat (''Rattus fuscipes'') (Zak) is a small Australian nocturnal animal. It is an omnivore and one of the most common indigenous species of rat on the continent, found in many heathland areas of Victoria and ...

s and

little red flying fox The little red flying-fox (''Pteropus scapulatus'') is a megachiropteran bat native to northern and eastern Australia. The species weighs about half a kilogram, one US pound, and is the smallest species of ''Pteropus'' in mainland Australia. '' ...

es. Over 20 species of

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s have been recorded, including

eastern long-necked turtle The eastern long-necked turtle (''Chelodina longicollis''), also known as the common long-necked turtle and common snake-necked turtle, is an east Australian species of snake-necked turtle that inhabits a wide variety of water bodies and is an ...

s and

eastern blue-tongued lizard The ''Tiliqua scincoides scincoides,'' or eastern blue-tongued lizard, is native to Australia. Its blue tongue can be used to warn off predators. In addition to flashing its blue tongue, the skink hisses and puffs up its chest to assert dominance ...

Green and golden bell frog 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 ...

s are present.

References

{{coord, 33, 38, 29, S, 150, 45, 10, E, display=title, region:AU-NSW_type:landmark Important Bird Areas of New South Wales Richmond, New South Wales