Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub Endangered Ecological Community Recovery Plan

Conservation Programs and Planning, Metropolitan Region
New South Wales Department of Environment and Conservation, 2004
ISBN: 0 7313 6763 4

Executive Summary

This document constitutes the formal Commonwealth and New South Wales Recovery Planfor the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub endangered ecological community. It identifies the actions to be taken to ensure the long-term viability of Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub in nature and the parties who will carry these out.

Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub (ESBS) is listed as endangered on Schedule 1 Part 3 of the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and as endangered under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. It is a sclerophyllous heath/scrub community that once occupied approximately 5,300 hectares between North Head and Botany Bay in the Sydney Basin Bioregion. Today, only 146 hectares of ESBS remains in small, isolated remnants on a range of tenures including private, Local, State and Commonwealth Government land.

ESBS occurs on disjunct patches of nutrient poor, aeolian dune sand and may contain small patches of woodland, low forest or limited wetter areas, depending on site topography and hydrology. Commonly recorded species of the community include Banksia aemula, Banksia ericifolia, Banksia serrata, Eriostemon australasius, Lepidosperma laterale, Leptospermum laevigatum, Monotoca elliptica, Pteridium esculentum, Ricinocarpos pinifolius and Xanthorrhoea resinifera.

A major threat to ESBS is the further loss and fragmentation of habitat as a consequence of clearing and development. Other known threats include: altered nutrient flows and hydrological regimes; weed invasion; inappropriate fire regimes; mowing, slashing and the inappropriate use of herbicides; grazing by horses and rabbits; over shading; infection by Phytophthora cinnamomi; erosion and physical damage from surface water run‑off, bicycles, motor vehicles, horses, rabbits and excessive pedestrian use; inappropriate plantings; factors affecting pollination and seed dispersal processes; seed and wildflower collection; and the dumping of rubbish (including construction materials and green waste).

This recovery plan describes our current understanding of ESBS, documents the management actions undertaken to date, and outlines a recovery program over the next five years.

To provide for the future recovery of ESBS, this plan advocates a recovery program that:

maps, assesses and monitors the condition of all ESBS remnants;
ensures that ESBS remnants are not destroyed and that an increased level of legislative protection is provided over land that provides habitat for ESBS;
favours in-situ protection and the management of threats at ESBS sites;
raises public awareness of ESBS and encourages active community participation in its conservation; and
examines the ecological aspects of ESBS which will inform management decisions regarding the long-term conservation of the community.

It is intended that this recovery plan will be implemented over a five-year period. Recovery actions will largely be implemented using existing resources of various NSW government agencies and community groups. The total cost to implement the plan is $98,000 over five years, however this does not include the cost of preparing and implementing plans of management.

Copyright

This work is copyright, however material presented in this plan may be copied for personal use or published for educational purposes, providing that any extracts are fully acknowledged. Apart from this and any other use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without prior written permission from the DEC.

The NPWS is part of the Department of Environment and Conservation

Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW)
43 Bridge Street
(PO Box 1967)
Hurstville NSW 2220
Ph: (02) 9585 6444
www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au

Requests for information or comments regarding this recovery plan should be directed to:-

The Director-General, Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW)
c/- Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub Recovery Program Coordinator
Conservation Programs and Planning, Metropolitan Region
Environment Protection and Regulation Division
Department of Environment and Conservation
PO Box 1967
HURSTVILLE NSW 2220
Ph: (02) 9585 6678

Cover photo: P.H. Glass, Jennifer St. La Perouse

This plan should be cited as the following
NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (2004) Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub Endangered Ecological Community Recovery Plan. NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, Hurstville.

Download the Recovery Plan

This recovery plan is also available as a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the PDF file.

Download Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub Endangered Ecological Community Recovery Plan - (esbs.pdf - 1690 MB)