Biodiversity Strategy - Gosford City Council - NSW Government

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from that described for the main estuary, and neither does the typical rocky intertidal assemblages. Birds seen in Mooney Mooney Creek again include the common estuarine forms, as well as: Eastern Whipbirds (Psophodes olivaceus); Bellbirds (Family Pachycephalidae); Wedge-Tailed Eagles (Aquila audax); and Hawks (Family Accipitridae). White-faced Herons (Ardea novaehollandiae) are seen in moderate numbers, feeding over each of the mudflats within the creek, particularly on the extensive mudflats to the west of Spectacle Island. These mudflats also have a large number of ocypodid crabs (Heloecius cordiformis). Mangrove stands back each of the bays within Mooney Mooney Creek and behind intertidal mudflats. At the junction of Mooney Mooney Creek and Piles Creek, mangroves flank both shores. Bays to the north of Fox Bay have mixed mangrove stands comprising both grey and river mangroves, whilst mangroves in Fox Bay and other bays to the south comprise solely grey mangroves. Again, river mangroves are much smaller than grey mangroves, and usually occur in front of and sometimes interspersed amongst them. Mangrove stands range from about thirty square metres in small bays, to several hundred square metres at the head of the creek, and on the western fringe of Spectacle Island. Individual grey mangroves do not exceed 10 m in height, and river mangroves do not exceed 3 m. Some mangrove stands on the western banks at the head of the creek have erosion stepped foreshores, whilst some eastern bays to the south have extensive sedimentation, evidenced by the burial of derelict oyster leases adjacent to a mangrove stand opposite Native Dog Bay, a fringe of scattered eelgrass plants with long shoots extends approximately one hundred metres. This is the only seagrass bed mapped within Mooney Mooney Creek. Oyster leases extend to the mouth of Mooney Mooney Creek south of Two Dollar Bay, and immediately to the south of Spectacle Island. Again, there are stacks of one to six oyster sticks, indicating depot and catch leases respectively. Similarly, foreshore development is also scattered along this length of the creek, with the exception of the township of Mooney Mooney, which is heavily built-up. The entire headland at Mooney Mooney is covered with private hillside residences having sandstone seawalls, wooden jetties, slipways with boatsheds, scattered moorings and one public wharf. Figure 6.8 Hawkesbury River upstream of Brooklyn (P. Freewater) Biodiversity - Technical Report Page 139
Patonga Creek Little information is available on Patonga Creek, other than a couple of unpublished reports undertaken by students from Macquarie University in the late 1980's (Byrnes et al., 1987 and Belford et al., 1989). Some of the information provided in these documents is erroneous. There is a Council resolution to develop an Estuary Management Plan for Patonga Creek. This Plan will ultimately guide management strategies for the creek and catchment. Patonga Creek is approximately 8 km long and its catchment is mostly comprised of the Brisbane Water National Park (13.4 km2). The estuary mouth has a constricted entrance due to the accumulation of sand at the entrance. A breakwater was constructed to prevent closure but requires dredging to maintain boat access. Byrnes et al. (1987) indicate that the Creek has approximately 0.4 km2 of mangrove habitat with small areas of associated saltmarsh and approximately 0.3 km2 of seagrass (Zostera capricorni). They also provide a species list for fauna but by their own admission, the list is incomplete and based only on opportunistic sightings by the project team. Mangrove Creek Little information is available for Mangrove Creek. There is a technical report on macroinvertebrate assemblages in the freshwater reaches of the creek (Roberts, 2004). The key relevant finding of this document is that there is a high level of diversity of macroinvertebrates (waterbugs) in the creek. In September 2004 the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority (CMA) began preparation of the River Health Strategy, which will guide actions that will help to achieve the river health targets in the CMAs Catchment Action Plan. Between October 2004 and June 2005, a panel of community and technical experts undertook a rapid assessment of the economic, social and environmental values of the river reach in the catchment and the threats to those values. Mangrove Creek was included in this assessment process. The River Health Strategy will help the CMA to make decisions about actions that are necessary to achieve improvements in river health. The strategy will set broad priorities for on-ground works in the CMAs river restoration program. It will provide detail about where in the catchment the actions need to take place. It will be in operation for the 10 year period of the Catchment Action Plan. Although a stand-alone document, the strategy is a key supporting document for the CMAs Catchment Action Plan. The assessment of the reach from the reservoir wall to the junction with Warren Creek and on to the tidal reach (approximately 1 km upstream of Greengrove) indicates that the riparian vegetation is of excellent quality and has an average width of 50 m. It also indicates that there is a good diversity of macroinvertebrates. Threats to this reach include: channel modification; barriers to ecosystem functioning because of a weir; flow regulation and modification; and exotic riparian and aquatic plant species. There is also an issue with Koi carp above in the weir pool and associated problems with turbidity. The assessment of the remaining reach down to the Hawkesbury indicates poor riparian habitat due to extensive clearing. The major riparian vegetation communities comprise of casuarinas, mangroves and saltmarsh. Threats are similar to the upstream reach but also include boating activities and the grazing of livestock. Brisbane Water Brisbane Water is a broad shallow estuary located approximately 50 kilometres north of Sydney, and is connected to Broken Bay by a relatively narrow channel and shoal on the western side near the eastern end of Ocean Beach. It has an area of approximately 2800 hectares and drains a catchment of roughly 190 square kilometres. The Estuary is complex in its morphology and is subject to human modifications (e.g. the construction of St Hubert’s Island Canal Estate). Biodiversity - Technical Report Page 140
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Gosford City Council BIODIVERSITY S
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CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION............
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A - 4.5 Climate ...................
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1 INTRODUCTION In accordance with C
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• Local interest groups such as B
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GOSFORD VISION 2025 INTERNATIONAL C
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Council is placing the information
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2 EXISTING SITUATION 2.1 Biodiversi
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ackdrop to areas of the City, conse
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Table 2: Statistics on Gosford's wa
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example, of the approximately 83 di
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• Biodiversity is best conserved
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6 Council to consider the developme
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Actions • Enhancing community edu
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5 Develop and implement strategies
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Appendix Gosford City Council BIODI
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CONTENTS APPENDIX GOSFORD CITY COUN
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A - 7.7 Human Interactions with Nat
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Genetic diversity is the variety of
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Biodiversity - Technical Report Pag
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A - 2.0 LEGISLATIVE CONTEXT The dev
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Amendment Act 2004 Standard Instrum
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areas within the Greater Metropolit
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A - 2.3.2 Council Corporate Reporti
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Biodiversity Toolbox The Commonweal
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A - 2.4 Discussion of Comparable Pl
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Biodiversity - Technical Report Pag
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A - 2.6 References Australian Local
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• Bushcare Program - ongoing •
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A - 3.2 Appraisal of biodiversity p
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Officer Table 3.2. Area of properti
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and sub-communities and to provide
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the Central Coast. The returned sur
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Council received funding for develo
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Council commissioned the Bush Stone
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education and training opportunitie
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of urban development applications w
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Unmanaged cattle grazing can impact
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Three public schools in the catchme
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Milestone 5 - Monitoring and Report
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A - 3.4 References Australian Museu
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(see Figure 4. 3) which accounts fo
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Newcastle and forms a major barrier
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Mooney Mooney and Mangrove Creeks.
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Aeolian Landscapes Beach Landscapes
Page 91 and 92: A - 4.5 Climate Generally the clima
Page 93 and 94: Kangaroo, possums, flying squirrels
Page 95 and 96: A - 4.9 Current Landuse Since the 1
Page 97 and 98: State government is also preparing
Page 99 and 100: A - 5.0 TERRESTRIAL BIODIVERSITY Th
Page 101 and 102: Lily) was once relatively widesprea
Page 103 and 104: Figure 5.1 Native vegetation commun
Page 105 and 106: Biodiversity - Technical Report Pag
Page 107 and 108: There have been few quantitative st
Page 109 and 110: • Rainforest • Wetlands • Dun
Page 111 and 112: Figure 5.5 Endangered ecological co
Page 113 and 114: of streams for water quality purpos
Page 115 and 116: Figures 5.5 - 5.7 Waratah (Telopea
Page 117 and 118: A - 5.4 A - 5.4.1 Terrestrial Fauna
Page 119 and 120: A - 5.4.3 Invertebrates There conti
Page 121 and 122: A draft Recovery Plan has been prep
Page 123 and 124: assumption that occupancy of a site
Page 125 and 126: Variables such as ‘proportion of
Page 127 and 128: Mount Kincumba to Bouddi NP and Cop
Page 129 and 130: A - 5.7 References Anon (1996) 'Sev
Page 131 and 132: Scotts D (1991) “Old-growth fores
Page 133 and 134: A - 6.2 Aquatic Habitats A - 6.2.1
Page 135 and 136: considered. This is true for all ri
Page 137 and 138: this zone are isolated Casuarina gl
Page 139 and 140: The Hawkesbury River The Hawkesbury
Page 141: Gulls (Larus novaehollandiae); Pied
Page 145 and 146: A particular objective of the above
Page 147 and 148: northeast lies the suburb of North
Page 149 and 150: Figure 6.11 Weedy Seadragon (Phyllo
Page 151 and 152: Lisarow Wetland Lisarow Wetland is
Page 153 and 154: • appropriately timed collection
Page 155 and 156: A - 6.3 References ANZECC (1992) Au
Page 157 and 158: Almost thirty key threatening proce
Page 159 and 160: Whilst these two species appear mor
Page 161 and 162: Low (1999) surmised that this fungu
Page 163 and 164: A - 7.8 Fire Management Fire manage
Page 165 and 166: 1. Salinity mediated processes - Sa
Page 167 and 168: • Structural flood mitigation wor
Page 169 and 170: Increased needs for active recreati
Page 171 and 172: A - 7.14 References Anderson, C (20
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Biodiversity Strategy - Gosford City Council - NSW Government

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