VEGETATION MANAGEMENT PLAN for Bidjigal Reserve - Land

Vegetation Management Plan - Bidjigal Reserve2.9 Bush Regeneration HistoryThe Carlingford North Rocks Bushland Trust was formed in the early 1970s, advocating propermanagement for local bushland. In 1978, the Excelsior Park Bushland Society was formed to assistwith the protection and rehabilitation of the Reserve bushland, with local residents serving ashonorary rangers and assisting with track building and weed control.The first Council-supported Bushcare project commenced in 1989, with monthly weeding carried outat the head of Christmas Bush Creek, at Cross and Carey Streets. From these small beginning,interest in community-based bush regeneration projects has spread to other sites in the Catchment.The Reserve (then Excelsior Reserve) was the focus of intensive bush regeneration and revegetationworks between March 1990 and June 1994, this work funded through the Sydney Water SpecialEnvironmental Levy Program. Work was undertaken by contract bush regenerators from theCatchment headwaters at Castle Hill to the lower Catchment, ending just above the wall of thestormwater detention basin constructed at Loyalty Road. Work was undertaken on all majorwatercourses and along most of the tributary creeks – an area estimated to be ~15 linear kilometres- (UBM 1995), as well as in some parts of the urban-bushland interface. At the conclusion of the SELProgram, some 18,000 hours of bush regeneration and revegetation work had been completed 7 .Following the conclusion of the SEL program, for several years BHSC employed bush regenerationcontractors to carry out follow-up and maintenance weeding throughout the earlier area ofoperations. Further short-term bush regeneration works were undertaken by contactors inassociation with the construction of the detention basin designed to protect Parramatta CBD fromfurther flooding. This work was funded by the Upper Parramatta River Catchment Trust.Other bush regeneration works have been funded from 1994 by Unilever – a private company whoseproperty in North Rocks backs onto Rifle Range Creek bordering Bidjigal Reserve.The construction of the M2 Motorway in 1997 also provided funding for bush regeneration work inthose parts of the Reserve impacted by road construction. This work was funded by The HillsMotorway Group and continued for several years.Maintenance of the Asset Protection Zones (‘APZs’) at the urban-bushland interface has from timeto time also been assigned to contract bush regenerators, funded by BHSC.Bush regeneration works have also been carried out by groups of community Bushcare volunteers;supported originally by professional bush regenerators employed by BHSC, but in more recent times,by Council’s own Bushcare staff. In 2004-2005 professional training and support was provided tofive (8) Bushcare groups: Mills Drive, Upper Darling Mills Creek, Winton Avenue, Christmas BushCreek, Pyes Avenue, Sawmill Creek Eric Mobbs, and Rutherglen Avenue (UBM June 2005).7 Stage 1 1990 National Trust: Stages 2 and 3 1991-1994 Urban Bushland ManagementUBM Ecological Consultants Pty Ltd 23