Wallumatta Nature Reserve, also called the Macquarie Hospital Bushland, is a

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 ...

bushland area, surrounded by the residential suburb of

East Ryde East Ryde is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. East Ryde is in the Northern Sydney region and is located 12 kilometers north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City ...

, in suburban Sydney, Australia. Once part of the Field of Mars of 1804, the reserve is the largest surviving area of

Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest The Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest (STIF) is dry sclerophyll forest community of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is typically found in the Inner West and Northern region of Sydney. It is also among the three of these plant communitie ...

, an endangered ecosystem. Soils are based on

Ashfield Shale Ashfield Shale is part of the Wianamatta group of sedimentary rocks in the Sydney Basin. It lies directly on contemporaneously eroded Hawkesbury sandstone or the Mittagong formation. These rock types were formed in the Triassic Period. It is nam ...

and

Hawkesbury Sandstone Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, one variety of which is historically known as Yellowblock, and also as "yellow gold" a sedimentary rock named after the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where this ...

. The word "

Wallumatta Wallumatta was the original name given to the Ryde-Hunters Hill area of Northern Sydney, Australia. Prior to the time that the area was known as Kissing Point, Wallumatta was the formal title and was named in honour of the area's native inhabitan ...

" is derived from the

Eora The Eora (''Yura'') are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. Eora is the name given by the earliest European settlers to a group of Aboriginal people belonging to the clans along the coastal area of what is now known as the Sy ...

language for the former local aboriginal inhabitants, meaning snapper (a local fish). The forest canopy is primarily made up of

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...

grey ironbark ''Eucalyptus paniculata'', commonly known as grey ironbark, is a species of tree that is endemic to New South Wales. It has dark-coloured, deeply furrowed ironbark on the trunk and branches, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in gro ...

, red mahogany and Sydney red gum. The tree, grey box is found here, though usually associated with the drier western areas of Sydney. The

blueberry ash ''Elaeocarpus reticulatus'', commonly known as blueberry ash, ash quandong, blue olive berry, fairy petticoats, fringe tree, koda, lily of the valley tree and scrub ash, is species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae, and is endem ...

is also present, a common plant of the wetter more fertile areas of eastern New South Wales. Native animals recorded include

brushtail possum The brushtail possums are the members of the genus ''Trichosurus'' in the Phalangeridae, a family of marsupials. They are native to Australia (including Tasmania) and some small nearby islands. Unique among marsupials, they have shifted the hypax ...

grey-headed flying fox 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 ''Pteropus'': the little red ''Pteropus scapulatus, P. scapulatus'', spectacle ...

blue-tongue lizard Blue-tongued skinks comprise the Australasian genus ''Tiliqua'', which contains some of the largest members of the skink family (Scincidae). They are commonly called blue-tongued lizards or simply blue-tongues or blueys in Australia. As sugges ...

and

red-bellied black snake The red-bellied black snake (''Pseudechis porphyriacus'') is a species of venomous snake in the family Elapidae, indigenous to Australia. Originally described by George Shaw in 1794 as a species new to science, it is one of eastern Australia' ...

. Feral

foxes Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

, domestic dogs and cats threaten the indigenous wildlife. Wallumatta Nature reserve is treated as a "demonstration site", and much

bush regeneration Bush regeneration, a form of natural area restoration, is the term used in Australia for the ecological restoration of remnant vegetation areas, such as through the minimisation of negative disturbances, both exogenous such as exotic weeds and en ...

work has been carried out to remove weeds and encourage indigenous species. The nature reserve, titled ''Macquarie Hospital Bushland'', was listed on the (now defunct)

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

on 15 May 1990.

References

External links

* {{Parks in Sydney, state=autocollapse Forests of New South Wales Nature reserves in New South Wales Sydney

See also

References

External links