Cumberland Plain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cumberland Plain is a region in the Sydney Basin of New South Wales, Australia. The plain extends from 10 kilometres north of Windsor to Picton in the south; and along the Parramatta River into the city's Inner West. The plain is today the site of much of Greater Western Sydney.

The plain takes its name from Cumberland, one of the 39 traditional counties of England—a name it shares with Cumberland County Council, a now-defunct regional government agency covering much of present-day Sydney and the Cumberland Highway.

[edit] Geography

The Cumberland Plain is located within the local government areas of Auburn Council, Baulkham Hills Shire, City of Blacktown, Camden Council, , City of Canada Bay City of Fairfield, City of Hawkesbury, Hornsby Shire, City of Holroyd, City of Liverpool, City of Parramatta, City of Penrith, City of Ryde and Wollondilly Shire; and parts of City of Campbelltown and several inner-western councils.

The Hawkesbury, Parramatta and Cooks rivers run through parts of the plain.

[edit] Ecology

At the time of European settlement, the Cumberland Plain contained 1,070 km² of woodlands. The westward expansion of Sydney over the plain has placed enormous pressure on the woodlands and other local ecological communities, only 13 per cent of which remain intact.

Cleared and used first for agriculture and then for urban development, most of the ecological communities that originally flourished on the plain are now considered endangered. They include:

Cumberland Plain woodland
Shale/sandstone transition forest
Sydney coastal river-flat forest
Elderslie banksia scrub
Blue gum high forest
Sydney turpentine ironbark forest
Western Sydney dry rainforest
Castlereagh swamp woodland
Agnes Banks woodland
Cooks River/Castlereagh ironbark forest
Moist shale woodland
Shale gravel transition forest

Cumberland Plain Woodland, of which around six per cent remains in isolated stands, was the first Australian ecological community to be assigned this status.

Cumberland Plain communities are protected in a number of council reserves, plus the Lower Prospect Canal Reserve, Scheyville National Park, Windsor Downs Nature Reserve, Leacock Regional Park and Mulgoa Nature Reserve and Mount Annan Botanic Garden.