Cumberland Plain

The Cumberland Plain is a region in the Sydney Basin of New South Wales, Australia. The plain extends from 10 kilometres north of Windsor in the north, to Picton in the south; and from the Nepean-Hawkesbury River in the west almost to Sydney City's Inner West in the east. Much of the Sydney metropolitan area is located on the Plain.

The plain takes its name from Cumberland County, in which it is situated, one of the cadastral land divisions of New South Wales. The name Cumberland was conferred on the County by Governor Phillip in honour of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.^[1]

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 /Nepean, Parramatta and Cooks rivers run through parts of the plain.

Geology

The area lies on Triassic shales and sandstones. The region mostly consists of low rolling hills and wide valleys in a rain shadow area near the Blue Mountains. There are volcanic rocks from low hills in the shale landscapes. Swamps and lagoons are existent on the floodplain of the Nepean River. Soils are usually red and yellow in texture. ^[2]

Ecology

At the time of European settlement, the Cumberland Plain contained 1,070 km² of woodlands and forests. 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 uncleared.

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.

References and links

1. ^ Geographical Names Board of NSW
2. ^ http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/bioregions/SydneyBasin-Subregions.htm

• New South Wales Government: Department of Environment and Conservation - Map of the Cumberland Plain
• New South Wales Government: Department of Environment and Conservation -Endangered ecological communities of the Cumberland Plain
• Botanic Gardens Trust - Mount Anna Botanic Garden webpage
• Australian Government: Department of the Environment and Heritage - Cumberland Plain Woodland: Woodlands Vanishing from Sydney's Outskirts