Septemberl992 Saving Mulligan's Flat The un-Welcome Dam NPA BULLETIN Volume 29 number 3 September 1992 CONTENTS Mulligan's Flat submission 4 Orroral work party pictures 8 The un-Welcome Dam 10 Jervis Bay convocation 12 Exotics in national parks 15 ACT tracking stations 18 Cover NPA in New Zealand 20 Photo: Rodney Falconer America by campervan 22 Central Mulligans Flat looking south to Canberra City. National Parks Association (ACT) Subscription rates (1 July - 30 June) Incorporated Household members $20 Single members $15 Inaugurated 1960 Corporate members $10 Bulletin only $10 Concession: half above rates For new subscriptions joining between: Aims and objects of the Association • Promotion of national parks and of measures for the 1 January and 31 March - half specified rate protection of fauna and flora, scenery and natural features 1 April and 30 June - annual subscription in the Australian Capital Territory and elsewhere, and the Membership enquiries welcome reservation of specific areas. Please phone Laraine Frawley at the NPA office. • Interest in the provision of appropriate outdoor recreation areas. The NPA (ACT) office is located in Kingsley Street, • Stimulation of interest in, and appreciation and enjoyment Acton. Office hours are: of, such natural phenomena by organised field outings, 10am to 2pm Mondays meetings or any other means. 9am to 2pm Tuesdays and Thursdays • Co-operation with organisations and persons having similar interests and objectives. Telephone: (06) 257 1063 • Promotion of, and education for, nature conservation, and Address: GPO Box 457 Canberra 2601. the planning of land-use to achieve conservation. Contribute to your Bulletin Office-bearers and Committee Contributions of articles (news, description or fictionL President Beverley Hammond 288 6577(h) black-and-white photographs and line drawings an Vice-President Dianne Thompson 288 6084(h); keenly sought for the Bulletin. Please label photo­ graphs with the name the subject, the name the 244 7558fw); 244 7934(fax w). of of photographer and the date. Leave contributions at the Immediate office or phone the editor, Roger Green, on Past President Les Pyke 281 2982(h) (06) 247 0059. The editorial fax is (06) 249 7373. Secretary Len Haskew 281 4268(h) Treasurer Mike Smith 286 2984(h); 248 3624(w) Articles by contributors may not necessarily reflect Association opinion or objectives. Subcommittee conveners Deadline for December issue: 1 November 1992. Environment Outings Michael Kelly 241 2330 (h); 275 6119(w) NPA Bulletin is produced by Green Words for the Namadgi National Parks Association (ACT) Incorporated. It is produced with the assistance of an ACT Heritage grant. Other Committee members Neville Esau 286 4176(h); 249 9243(w) Printed on recycled paper bv Union Offset Co Pty Ltd, Syd Comfort 2S6 2578(h) Fyshwick, ACT. Clive Hurlstone 288 7592(h); 246 5516(w) Doreen Wilson 288 5215(h); 201 7000(w) ISSN 0727-8837 Tim Walsh 274 1465 Len Crossfield 241 2897(h); 263 3536(w) Graham Guttridge 231 4330(h); 207 3471(w> President's foreword It was a lovely sunny day on open forest and native grasslands May—you may have seen the Monday 27 July when the with its rich flora and fauna. The follow-up visit reported in the Mulligan's Flat Nature Reserve Minister responded that the envi­ Canberra Times. At a meeting Proposal was presented to the ronmental significance of the area with Conservation Council Groups Minister for the Environment, Bill deserved recognition. He reported in June, senior officers of the ACT Wood. Jacqui Rees, Chair of the that the decision had already been Parks and Conservation Service Conservation Council, represented taken to re-route the Gungahlin acknowledged that the carpark the six groups which contributed Plan ring road which would have was wrongly sited and formed. An to the submission. She spoke of the cut the area in two. The assurance was given that in future importance of the preservation of Government will compare boun­ more rigid work approval proce­ this area of remnant woodland, daries recommended in our sub­ dures would be used in accordance mission with the with the Plan of Management for revised, enlarged Namadgi National Park. The area for a Nature stones and logs have already been Reserve, already removed although not yet replaced. under consideration The carpark will be less conspicu­ by planners. ously relocated and a comprehen­ Members of our sive survey of the Aboriginal Association were heritage of the old Gudgenby prop­ very concerned erty will be undertaken. about the new car­ As we approach the Annual park built in General Meeting I would like to Namadgi for access thank members of all our commit­ to the Yankee Hat tees for their contribution to NPA Painting site. We in the last year. Thank you to made a submission those who worked on submissions, to the Minister, Bill who laboured at work parties at Wood, regarding the Orroral and in the Budawangs, siting and size of the who led outings or increased our carpark, th6 use of knowledge of heritage features in stones and logs for Namadgi. This Bulletin is a tribute its border, the envi­ to our editor and to many contrib­ ronmental destruc­ uting writers and photographers. tion caused in A special thank you to Laraine removing those Frawley for her cheerful work in stones and the sig­ the office. nificance of the area to Aboriginal heri­ Beverley Hammond tage. I alerted member groups of the Conservation Our active President crossing the Nattai River Council at its quar­ Photo by Fiona MacDonald Brand. terly meeting in A useful guide The ACT Land (Planning and has produced a 50-page guide to related information such as a Environment) Act which came into this Act and a number of asso­ summary of the Heritage Objects effect in April this year is an ciated pamphlets addressing par­ Act. important and complex piece of ticular issues. The guide is available from legislation. In addition to planning The guide contains a glossary of Shopfronts without charge. and lease administration, the Act terms, an outline of the Act and a Department of the Environment Land covers many environmental and summary of its main provisions in and Planning: The Guide to the Australian heritage matters and the adminis­ the areas of planning, environ­ Capital Territory's Land fPlanning and tration of public land including mental assessment, heritage, land Environment) Act 1991. (1992). national parks and nature leasing, public land administra­ Syd Comfort reserves. The Department of the tion and approvals and orders. It Environment, Land and Planning also provides some other useful Mulligan's Flat submission I Very few natural lowland areas grasslands in south-eastern remain in the ACT: one of the last Australia. is Mulligan's Flat. Mulligan's Flat Before European settlement, lies to the north of Canberra City, habitats similar to that at amongst the new suburbs of Mulligan's Flat covered a large Gungahlin. area of the region which now com­ I The area around Gungahlin has prises the northern part of the always been set aside for housing, ACT and the surrounding area of and as a result, grazing in the NSW. To an extent which varies area has been very limited. The from site to site, the native habi­ lack of interference from intro­ tat in almost all of these areas has duced animals has left Mulligan's been degraded through clearing, Flat an oasis for native species. heavy grazing and more recently, On July 27, seven conservation through urban development groups—the Conservation Council Bear's Ear (Cymbonotus Mulligan's Flat represents an of the South-East Region and lawsonianus)—an understorey oasis of relatively undisturbed Canberra, the Society for Growing species. native forest, woodland and Australian Plants, Canberra Photo by Rodney Falconer. grassland. Ornithologists Group, the NPA, Current draft development plans Canberra Archeological Society, of expert assessment. are understood to include the the ACT Herpetological Asso­ Despite a recent declaration by clearing of a large part of the eco­ logically rich and flatter southern ciation and the Field Naturalists the ACT Government, which has portion of the wooded area of Association of the ACT— resulted in a highly commendable Mulligan's Flat in the establish­ presented a submission on 52 per cent of the total land area Mulligan's Flat to the Minister for ment of Gungahlin. The organisa­ of the ACT now being reserved as the Environment, Bill Wood. This tions jointly making this National Park or Nature is an extract from that submission are unanimously and submission. Reserves, several important habi­ strongly opposed to the concept tat types (including those cur­ that this flatter southern portion rently in a good state of should be lost to development. The crucial objective of this sub­ preservation at Mulligan's Flat) mission is to obtain the ACT are either unrepresented or The vegetation at Mulligan's Flat embraces communities of Government's agreement to the poorly represented in these open forest, woodland and grass­ preservation of a large, continuous reserves. There are no extensive and regularly shaped area of land. The open forest communities^ national parks or nature reserves are confined largely to the nortW Mulligan's Flat, Gungahlin, as a in the surrounding area of NSW nature reserve: ern hilltop areas and include — in which sample the ecosystems sim­ addition to Scribbly Gum, Brittle * including not only the north­ ilar to those at Mulligan's Flat. Gum, Red Stringybark, Blakely's ern, hilly and forested areas The remnant of native wood­ Red Gum and Yellow Box — a • but also and more importantly, land, open forest and native stand of Bundy, a eucalypt which the flatter and deeper soiled grassland at Mulligan's Flat in is uncommon in the ACT.