Welcome to the Friends of Darvall Park website, a site dedicated to the preservation, restorations, and protection of a rare and ancient Blue Gum High Forest.
'It occurs in the Sydney region where it is generally found at altitudes higher than 100 m above sea level on the Hornsby Plateau in the North Shore and northern suburbs of Sydney. It is predominantly restricted to deep soils derived from Wianamatta Shale in high-rainfall areas that receive more than 1100 mm per year. Some remnants also occur on Hawkesbury Sandstone and the Mittagong formation. In lower rainfall zones, it grades into Turpentine Ironbark Forest with which it shares some characteristic species'(Benson and Howell, 1990, 1990; NSW NPWS, 2002).
*Blue Gum High Forest is protected by the state government and is classed as critically endangered habitat. Less than 5% of this habitat remains within scattered remnant bushland.
*'The major threats to the Blue Gum High Forest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion are vegetation clearing and fragmentation of remnants. In the past, vegetation was cleared to provide construction timber or for farming and agricultural activities. In more recent times, urban development resulting from the expansion of Sydney suburbs has become the main ongoing reason for clearing'(Benson and Howell 1990).'Additional ongoing threats to the survival of the Blue Gum High Forest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion ecological community are increased nutrient status, altered drainage, inappropriate fire regimes, invasion by exotic plants, mowing and clearing' (NSW Scientific Committee, 1997).
'It occurs in the Sydney region where it is generally found at altitudes higher than 100 m above sea level on the Hornsby Plateau in the North Shore and northern suburbs of Sydney. It is predominantly restricted to deep soils derived from Wianamatta Shale in high-rainfall areas that receive more than 1100 mm per year. Some remnants also occur on Hawkesbury Sandstone and the Mittagong formation. In lower rainfall zones, it grades into Turpentine Ironbark Forest with which it shares some characteristic species'(Benson and Howell, 1990, 1990; NSW NPWS, 2002).
*Blue Gum High Forest is protected by the state government and is classed as critically endangered habitat. Less than 5% of this habitat remains within scattered remnant bushland.
*'The major threats to the Blue Gum High Forest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion are vegetation clearing and fragmentation of remnants. In the past, vegetation was cleared to provide construction timber or for farming and agricultural activities. In more recent times, urban development resulting from the expansion of Sydney suburbs has become the main ongoing reason for clearing'(Benson and Howell 1990).'Additional ongoing threats to the survival of the Blue Gum High Forest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion ecological community are increased nutrient status, altered drainage, inappropriate fire regimes, invasion by exotic plants, mowing and clearing' (NSW Scientific Committee, 1997).