Transformations: Ecology of Pyrmont peninsula 1788 - 2008 John Broadbent Transformations: Ecology of Pyrmont peninsula 1788 - 2008 John Broadbent Sydney, 2010. Ecology of Pyrmont peninsula iii Executive summary City Council’s ‘Sustainable Sydney 2030’ initiative ‘is a vision for the sustainable development of the City for the next 20 years and beyond’. It has a largely anthropocentric basis, that is ‘viewing and interpreting everything in terms of human experience and values’(Macquarie Dictionary, 2005). The perspective taken here is that Council’s initiative, vital though it is, should be underpinned by an ecocentric ethic to succeed. This latter was defined by Aldo Leopold in 1949, 60 years ago, as ‘a philosophy that recognizes[sic] that the ecosphere, rather than any individual organism[notably humans] is the source and support of all life and as such advises a holistic and eco-centric approach to government, industry, and individual’(http://dictionary.babylon.com). Some relevant considerations are set out in Part 1: General Introduction. In this report, Pyrmont peninsula - that is the communities of Pyrmont and Ultimo – is considered as a microcosm of the City of Sydney, indeed of urban areas globally. An extensive series of early views of the peninsula are presented to help the reader better visualise this place as it was early in European settlement (Part 2: Early views of Pyrmont peninsula). The physical geography of Pyrmont peninsula has been transformed since European settlement, and Part 3: Physical geography of Pyrmont peninsula describes the geology, soils, topography, shoreline and drainage as they would most likely have appeared to the first Europeans to set foot there. The above exercise was considered an essential preliminary to describing the ecology of the peninsula at European settlement(Part 4: Flora and Fauna of Pyrmont peninsula in 1788). This part also provides insights into some of the taxonomists who created an orderly view of plant and animal life around Port Jackson. Recognition is also given to the many observers, past and present, who have detailed the distribution and abundance of plant and animal species around Sydney. The outcome is an assessment that at least 675 plant species, perhaps 22 frog species and 45 reptile species, at least 220 bird species and 60 or more mammal species inhabited Pyrmont peninsula and adjoining waters at European settlement. This rich flora and fauna was related to the diverse habitats of the peninsula – from the typical sandstone country of its spine; the moister and taller forests at its base, towards today’s Broadway; the extensive and diverse wetlands at the heads of Cockle and Blackwattle Bays; the varied shoreline communities; and the mangroves, limited saltmarsh, and seagrass beds offshore. These natural lands were essentially destroyed during the century or so after European settlement by a series of transformative activities(Part 5: Transformations). The first, and likely the most ecologically injurious, was the clearing of native vegetation, which was completed during the 1840s. The peninsula and its relict ecology continued to be physically and biologically altered by a series of transformations which mostly started in the second half of the 19th century and continued into the 20th – agriculture, sandstone removal, urbanisation, industrialisation(and commercialisation), land reclamation, railway/wharf construction and, in the last 2-3 decades, urban consolidation. Each of these transformations has been driven by economics with little or no regard for ecology. The result, not surprisingly, is a highly impoverished native flora and fauna on Pyrmont peninsula today(Part 6: Flora and fauna of Pyrmont peninsula in 2008). Fewer than 20 native plants remain, supplemented by almost 80 species re- introduced by landcarers. Some 45 native bird species have been observed in recent years, of which almost a third are considered vagrant or rare and almost half are uncommon. No frogs are believed to remain on the peninsula, although aquarium escapees are recorded from time to time. Seven reptile species have been observed in Pyrmont- Ultimo, the survival of over half of which is threatened. The Grey-headed Flying Fox and Common Brushtail Possum are the only native mammals known to occur on the peninsula today. iv Ecology of Pyrmont peninsula The ecological devastation of a peninsula near central Sydney has occurred in a little over two hundred years – mostly in the first century of European settlement. Of itself, this is nothing remarkable and is a predictable outcome of the urbanisation processes humans have practiced for some 7,000 years. Ecology has consistently been secondary to economy. As we look towards a near-term future in which 60% of all humans will be urbanised by 2030, we must question the viability of our anthropocentric views of so many millennia. Perhaps we should rather adopt an ecocentric world view, and engage in ‘the mother of all transformations’ before it is too late – and collapse of global civilisation as we know it becomes unavoidable. Actions which will engage us with such a change process are suggested in Part 8: Proposals. These are starting points of a process which should be swift and systemic if it is to succeed; they will doubtless be greatly elaborated by the experience of implementation. Ecology of Pyrmont peninsula v Acknowledgments It is with much pleasure that I acknowledge the help of many individuals during this project: * My profound thanks to the reader services librarians of the State Library of New South Wales, who patiently led me through the seemingly-endless complexities of the library catalogue. The wealth of information contained in this report is due largely to their helpful and ongoing commitment. * I particularly acknowledge the help of Mark Hildebrand, whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the State Library collection and the multiplicity of ways to access it repeatedly expedited the location of relevant resources. * Behind the reader services staff are the collectors, who must have walked many kilometres in search of requested materials, their retrieval skills ensuring the rapid supply of items. I should particularly mention librarian Joanne Searle, who has an extraordinary ability to retrieve items misplaced on the shelves! * I greatly valued the help of Robert Woodley, of the Original Materials Branch of the State Library, in accessing the picture collections of the Mitchell Library. Robert’s familiarity with Pyrmont peninsula helped locate items which may have otherwise escaped attention. * I am particularly grateful to Kevin Leamon, Copyright & Permissions, State Library of New South Wales, for organising permission to publish the many images from that collection used in this report, and to the Library’s photographers for their meticulous preparation of these images. The images are from four parts of the State Library, and are shown in the following figures: * Dixson Galleries(DG): 2.12, 2.16, 2.18, 2.20, 5.4.7, 5.4.8, 5.7.1, 5.7.3, 5.7.12, 5.8.4, 5.8.14. * Dixson Library(DL): 2.3, 2.17, 4.5.2, 4.6.3, 5.6.3, 5.6.4, 5.8.2, 5.9.1. * Mitchell Library(ML): 2.1, 2.2, 2.5, 2.6 2.8, 2.9, 2.11, 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, 2.19, 2.21, 2.22, 2.23, 3.3, 3.4, 3.7, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4, 4.2.5, 4.2.6, 4.2.7, 4.4.1, 4.4.2, 4.4.3, 4.4.4, 4.4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.9, 4.5.11, 4.5.12, 4.5.13, 4.5.14, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 5.3.3, 5.4.1, 5.4.2, 5.4.3, 5.4.4, 5.4.5, 5.4.6, 5.5.2, 5.5.4, 5.5.5, 5.5.6, 5.5.7, 5.6.1, 5.6.2, 5.6.5, 5.6.6, 5.6.7, 5.7.2, 5.7.4, 5.7.5, 5.7.6, 5.7.7, 5.7.10, 5.7.11, 5.8.1, 5.8.3, 5.8.6, 5.8.11, 5.8.13, 5.9.2, 5.9.3, 5.9.4, 5.9.6, 5.9.7, 5.9.9, 5.9.10, 5.9.12, 5.9.13, 6.1. * State Reference Library(SRL): 2.25, 5.3.1, 5.3.2, 5.5.1, 5.5.3, 5.7.8, 5.7.9, 5.7.13, 5.9.5, 5.9.11. * I am also indebted to Elizabeth Ellis, former Assistant State Librarian, Collection Management Services and Mitchell Librarian and now Curator Emeritus, who interpreted a sketch supposedly from Ultimo House by Emily Manning in which key city landmarks seemed in reverse. It transpired that the sketch was from Kings Cross! * I am most grateful to the National Library of Australia for permission to publish the images in Figures 2.7, 2.10 and 2.24. vi Ecology of Pyrmont peninsula * It is a great pleasure indeed to thank Margaret Ackland for permission to use her painting ‘Pyrmont Expressway, 1984’(ML 931) to illustrate the cover of this report. The painting reflects the raw anger of the Pyrmont-Ultimo communities at impositions from outside, so eloquently described by Fitzgerald & Golder(1994) - in this case the Western Distributor. That anger must have existed in many generations of Pyrmont-Ultimo residents as successive transformations wracked their neighbourhoods. * The project committee, chaired by Charles Perry(Pyrmont Progress Inc.) with Elizabeth Elenius (Pyrmont- Ultimo Landcare) and Nik Midlam(City Council), kindly tolerated my incessant pleas for more time as the scope of this report seemed to expand ad infinitum. There was an end-point after all! * My particular thanks go to Peter Gould, Daryl Prondoso and Jerry Chang who have done the hard yard in bringing together a grab-bag of inputs into a beautiful and stylish end-product.