Preserving and encouraging parts of the natural environment is crucial to persevering Penrith’s connection with its natural history, a local volunteer group has said.
Cumberland Land Conservancy is a volunteer operated not-for-profit charity dedicated to acquiring and conserving parcels of land across the Cumberland Plain, an area of native vegetation between the Blue Mountains and Sydney.
Their properties Thornbill (Agnes Banks), Marsdenia (Llandilo), Wombat (Regentville) and Wallaroo (Mulgoa) account for roughly 50 hectares of land across the Penrith LGA.
Wayne Olling, current Vice President and former President of Cumberland Land Conservancy, has been involved in environmental conservation for over two decades and explained the need for conservation of large parcels of land on the Cumberland Plain.
“In the past, the State Government had a policy of island conservation, that is protecting little pieces of land where they could for conservation,” Olling said.
“That was not going to work for terrestrial fauna, so this property and all of our other properties are small links between larger areas managed for conservation. What that does, is it provides the means for terrestrial fauna to move about and have some place to forage and inhabit.
“They are intersected by roads but down the track something can be done about that when road upgrades occur, it could be land bridges or means to go under the road, and that’s then a connected corridor.”
Just on the Wallaroo site in Mulgoa there has been over 150 different species of birds spotted and a lot of other fauna species.
“It is close to Mulgoa Nature Reserve and the Blue Mountains National Park so it’s a bit of a corridor between the two,” Olling explained.
“Kangaroos, wallaroos, wallabies, wombats and lace monitors have been observed on the site, along with all other types of fauna.
“We have a monthly bird survey here and I think it is over 160 species of bird have been observed in the time that we’ve had the
property.
“It’s just providing that habitat so that fauna as it has existed on the Cumberland Plain, does have a place to live.”
Without the dedicated ongoing conservation of land, Penrith will lose a lot of its natural history particularly as urban developments are increasing.
“Unless people are in there preserving our natural environment, we’re going to become just a sea of brick, concrete and bitumen on the Cumberland Plain,” Olling said.
“It won’t work so well as an environment because the Cumberland Plain does get hot, Penrith can get hot in summer and reflected heat from all those structures and built items, it’s not going to be a pleasant place.”
Emily Chate
Emily Chate joined The Western Weekender in 2024, and covers local news - primarily courts and politics. A graduate of the University of Wollongong, Emily has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and worked as a freelance journalist.