The Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland is a grassy woodland community situated in the

Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

, New South Wales, Australia. It was listed in May 2015 as critically endangered under Australia's national environment law.Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland: a nationally protected ecological community

Department of the Environment and Energy The Department of the Environment and Energy (DEE) was an Australian government department in existence between 2016 and 2020. The department was responsible for matters including environment protection and conservation of biodiversity as well ...

. Retrieved 14 September 2022. The ''Warkworth Sands Woodland of the Hunter Valley'', situated in the area, was gazetted as an endangered ecological community in New South Wales on 13 December 2002 under the ''NSW

Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 The ''Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act)'' was enacted by the Parliament of New South Wales in 1995 to protect threatened species, populations and ecological communities in NSW. In 2016 it was replaced by the '' Biodiversity Co ...

'' and now under the '' Biodiversity Act of 2016''.

Geography

It is found on low hillslopes and low ridges, or valley floors in undulating land, on soils traced from finer grained sedimentary rocks. The Warkworth Sands Woodland occurs on aeolian sand deposits south of Singleton in the Hunter Valley. These sand dunes are thought to date from the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, are from 1–6 m high and rest on a river terrace. Under the Commonwealth EPBC Act it is listed as ''Warkworth Sands Woodland of the Hunter Valley''. Warkworth Sands Woodland is found in a small area near Warkworth, with only 800 hectares remaining (thought to be perhaps 13% of its pre-settlement extent). The entire known endangered community lies outside conservation reserves. Extending from Newcastle in the southeast to Murrurundi to the northwest, traversing large towns such as

Singleton Singleton may refer to: Sciences, technology Mathematics * Singleton (mathematics), a set with exactly one element * Singleton field, used in conformal field theory Computing * Singleton pattern, a design pattern that allows only one instance o ...

and Muswellbrook, the community features mid to low woodland that is generally dominated by

Angophora floribunda ''Angophora floribunda'', commonly known as the rough-barked apple, is a common woodland and forest tree of the family Myrtaceae native to Eastern Australia. Reaching 30 m (100 ft) high, it is a large tree with fibrous bark and cream-wh ...

in its canopy and

Banksia integrifolia ''Banksia integrifolia'', commonly known as the coast banksia, is a species of tree that grows along the east coast of Australia. One of the most widely distributed ''Banksia'' species, it occurs between Victoria and Central Queensland in a b ...

subsp. integrifolia or

Acacia filicifolia ''Acacia filicifolia'', commonly known as fern-leaved wattle, is a plant in the legume family, Fabaceae and is native to eastern Australia. It is a shrub or tree with compound leaves resembling fern fronds, and spherical heads of yellow or brig ...

in the sub-canopy.Warkworth Sands Woodland of the Hunter Valley - profile
Office of Environment & Heritage. Retrieved 8 September 2022.

Ecology

It is dominated by Eucalyptus crebra, Corymbia maculata, Eucalyptus dawsonii,

Eucalyptus blakelyi ''Eucalyptus blakelyi'', known as Blakely's red gum, is a tree endemic to eastern Australia. It has smooth bark on its trunk and branches, dull bluish green, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds usually in groups of seven, white flowers and cup ...

Eucalyptus glaucina ''Eucalyptus glaucina'', commonly known as the slaty red gum, is a species of small to medium-sized tree endemic to New South Wales. It has smooth, white and grey bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and ...

Eucalyptus tereticornis ''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 ...

and Eucalyptus moluccana. Other tree species include

Brachychiton populneus ''Brachychiton populneus'', commonly known as the kurrajong, is a small to medium-sized tree found naturally in Australia in a diversity of habitats from wetter coastal districts to semi-arid interiors of Victoria, New South Wales and Queenslan ...

Callitris endlicheri ''Callitris endlicheri'', commonly known as the black cypress pine, is a species of conifer in the family Cupressaceae. It is found only in Australia, occurring in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Victoria. Des ...

, Acacia salicina,

Eucalyptus albens ''Eucalyptus albens'', known as the white box, is a common tree of the western slopes and plains of New South Wales and adjacent areas in Queensland and Victoria. It has rough, fibrous bark on the base of its trunk and smooth, white bark above. ...

and

Eucalyptus punctata ''Eucalyptus punctata'', commonly known as grey gum, is a small to medium-sized tree that is endemic to eastern Australia. It has smooth grey bark that is shed in patches, lance-shaped, curved or egg-shaped adult leaves flower buds in groups of ...

. Animals include Litoria aurea,

Petrogale penicillata The brush-tailed rock-wallaby or small-eared rock-wallaby (''Petrogale penicillata'') is a kind of wallaby, one of several rock-wallabies in the genus '' Petrogale''. It inhabits rock piles and cliff lines along the Great Dividing Range from ab ...

Pteropus poliocephalus The grey-headed flying fox (''Pteropus poliocephalus'') is a megabat native to Australia. The species shares mainland Australia with three other members of the genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classifi ...

Pseudomys novaehollandiae The New Holland mouse (''Pseudomys novaehollandiae'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It was first described by George Robert Waterhouse, George Waterhouse in 1843. It vanished from view for over a century before its rediscovery in ...

Dasyurus maculatus The tiger quoll (''Dasyurus maculatus''), also known as the spotted-tail quoll, the spotted quoll, the spotted-tail dasyure, native cat or the tiger cat, is a carnivorous marsupial of the quoll genus ''Dasyurus'' native to Australia. With males ...

Chalinolobus dwyeri The large-eared pied bat (''Chalinolobus dwyeri'') is a species of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It can be found in Australia. See also *Threatened fauna of Australia *List of bats of Australia This is the list of bats of Austral ...

Nyctophilus corbeni The south-eastern long-eared bat or Corben's long-eared bat (''Nyctophilus corbeni''), is a species of bat found in Australia. It occurs in the woodlands of the Murray Darling BasinTurbill, C. and Ellis, M. (2006). Distribution and abundance of ...

, and Grantiella picta. Threatened fauna which have been recorded in Warkworth Sands Woodland are: '' Petaurus norfolcensis'', (Squirrel Glider), '' Chthonicola saggitata'' (Speckled Warbler), ''Climacteris picumnus victoriae'' (

Brown treecreeper The brown treecreeper (''Climacteris picumnus'') is the largest Australasian treecreeper. The bird, endemic to eastern Australia, has a broad distribution, occupying areas from Cape York, Queensland, throughout New South Wales and Victoria to Po ...

) and '' Pomatostomus temporalis'' ''temporalis'' (Grey-crowned Babbler).

NSW cases involving Warkworth Sands Woodland

#Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association Inc v Minister for Planning and Infrastructure and Warkworth Mining Limited

013 013 is a music venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The venue opened in 1998 and replaced the ''Noorderligt'', the ''Bat Cave'' and the ''MuziekKantenWinkel''. 013 is the largest popular music venue in the southern Netherlands. There are two concer ...

NSWLEC 48 Bulga Milbrodale Progress association won its appeal against a ministerially approved extension of the open-cut Warkworth Mine. #Warkworth Mining Limited v Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association Inc

014 014 may refer to: * Argus As 014 * BIND-014 * 014 Construction Unit * Divi Divi Air Flight 014 * Pirna 014 * Tyrrell 014 The Tyrrell 014 was a Formula One car, designed for Tyrrell Racing by Maurice Philippe for use in the season. The cars wer ...

NSWCA 105. This case appealed the previous decision of the Land and Environment court which disallowed an extension of the open-cut mine. The appeal was dismissed.

Gallery

Jacksonia_scoparia_2012-06-19_10.35.41.jpg, ''

Jacksonia scoparia ''Jacksonia scoparia'', commonly known as dogwood (from its strong odour when burning), is a native species of a pea-flowered, greyish, leafless, broom-like shrub or small tree that occurs in the south east of Queensland, Australia and eastern N ...

'' on Warkworth Sands Grevillea montana 2012-06-19 15.05.29.jpg, '' Grevillea montana'' on Warkworth Sands Angophora floribunda 2012-06-19 11.40.22.jpg, ''

'' in Warkworth Sands Woodland

References

{{Australasia grasslands navbox Endangered Ecological Community Grasslands of Australia Remnant urban bushland Vegetation of Australia Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Environment of New South Wales Ecoregions of New South Wales Sclerophyll forests