Brush Farm Park, a rare fragment of Sydney’s original forest, survives between suburbs of Eastwood and Dundas Valley - thanks to the dedicated care of local people practicing the principles of bush regeneration back in the 1980s.
This miracle is hidden behind a wall of traffic as busy roads wrap around the northern boundary of Brush Farm Park. Nature survives here beyond a scout hall and netball courts. A fragment of Sydney’s original forest - containing a few big old trees that predate the British settlement of Sydney. The colonial project that became Australia started only 15km to the east of Brush Farm Park, the ‘Tank Stream’ the source of the early colony’s freshwater buried within the CBD, Circular Quay the point where that freshwater met saltwater of the harbour.
A tsunami of urban ‘growth’ started there at the Tank Stream back in 1788, hence it seems a miracle that such a natural place has survived to this point, but we have to thank a handful of local people’s dedicated efforts starting back in the 1980s, if it was not for their efforts this would be a degraded collection of exotic plants - back in the 1980s i would walk south through Brush Park on my way to Marsden High and it seemed 99% Broad leaved Privet (Ligustrum lucidum).
A tsunami of urban ‘growth’ started there at the Tank Stream back in 1788, hence it seems a miracle that such a natural place has survived to this point, but we have to thank a handful of local people’s dedicated efforts starting back in the 1980s, if it was not for their efforts this would be a degraded collection of exotic plants - back in the 1980s i would walk south through Brush Park on my way to Marsden High and it seemed 99% Broad leaved Privet (Ligustrum lucidum).
Such a surprise to discover this wonderland in suburbia
A forest is a very competitive stage for sunlight, hardly any sunshine makes it to the forest floor, with a birdseye perspective one can see the lower level plants tend to be a darker shade of green, canopy trees like young emergent Sydney Bluegums (Eucalyptus saligna), give the canopy a lighter green look, at times a yellow / green.
The forest found at Brush Farm Park is a mix of two ecological communities - the wetter Blue Gum High Forest and slightly drier Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest, in addition there is an element of unique rainforest plants in the gullies more likely to be associated with that of the Illawarra escarpment like the amazing Minnamurra Falls.
The forest found at Brush Farm Park is a mix of two ecological communities - the wetter Blue Gum High Forest and slightly drier Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest, in addition there is an element of unique rainforest plants in the gullies more likely to be associated with that of the Illawarra escarpment like the amazing Minnamurra Falls.