STEP Inc - BGHF Heritage Significance

The area has outstanding natural heritage significance:

It provides a rare example of an intact Blue Gum High Forest community that was described by the exploration party of Captain Arthur Phillip as an “immense wood” when they first passed through it from Bungaroo on 17 April 1788.
It provides complete upper sub-catchments with intact shale soil ridge-tops and valleys, which allow for a broad range of topographic environments for the full expression of this ecological community.
The prior use of most of this land has been selective logging with no significant clearing of the understorey. This has ensured that the ecological community has been conserved and is essentially the same as that seen by Captain Arthur Phillip’s exploration party in 1788. With over 200 native plant species it has the highest biodiversity of any Blue Gum High Forest Reserve.
It contains some large diameter trees which likely pre-date European settlement.
It still supports a diverse animal and bird population. Over 80 species of native birds have been observed in the area.


Blue Gum High Forest, St Ives (photo: Nancy Pallin)		Peeling bark on Eucalyptus saligna (photo: Jane Gye)

The area has outstanding cultural heritage significance.

It is last significant example of the type of tall forest vegetation on moist shale soils encountered by Captain Arthur Phillip on his first inland expedition; and by George Caley, botanist and collector for Joseph Banks, walking from Pennant Hills to the coast and returning (1805).
This tall forest remains to remind us of the early timber-getting industry; transportation of the timber by bullocks and boats down the Lane Cove River and how essential this resource was in building early Sydney.
This St Ives forest remnant remains, whereas, virtually all of the logged land was purchased by farmers and cleared for agriculture to feed Sydney’s growing population. The farms and orchards have been replaced in turn by urban residential development.
It is important as a living link between pre-European settlement and the present.
The historical acquisition and protection of a significant portion of this remnant of Blue Gum High Forest serves as an example of the cooperation shown by Federal, State and Local Government and the vision, support and effort of the community.
It has national significance as well as state and local, as a living reference for the way in which the nation started and grew from a camp on Sydney Cove.