Bathurst Biodiversity

Work Charles Sturt has been doing

Two areas totalling 3.6 hectares at Charles Sturt University Bathurst have been identified and mapped indicating areas of significant conservation value. These areas were formally ratified in April 2017 as biodiversity zones.

Work to stabilise the creek bed and side slopes of Hawthornden Creek (Biodiversity area B) are ongoing. The Creek runs along the southern boundary of Charles Sturt University Bathurst, providing an excellent opportunity for the enhancement of this biodiversity/wildlife corridor. In 2013 Charles Sturt University partnered with Bathurst Regional Council to undertake significant stabilisation works.

Ongoing habitat enhancement work aims to:

  • create a native shrub layer;
  • enhance numbers of native herbs to expand ground cover;
  • maintain trees with hollows;
  • ensuring the protection of the Narrow-leaved Black Peppermint (Eucalyptus nicholii)
  • allow/provide fallen trees, hollow logs, branches and leaf litter on the ground;
  • plant more of the Diamond Firetail’s preferred food trees (Eucalyptus viminalis) as there are too few in the area; and
  • continue revegetation activities connecting Biodiversity zone A to B extending the wildlife corridor along Hawthornden Creek using seedlings grown from seed collected from remnant trees currently growing there.

Erosion control works have continued in 2020 by the Division of Facilities Management team under the guidance of Alumni Mick Callan.

Weed control

Minimise numbers of introduced species in the ground cover. Control of African Lovegrass and Serrated Tussock in particular, but also Blackberry, Chilean Needle Grass, and Willows which are listed as Weeds of National Significance. Consideration must be given to the control of Chilean Needlegrass around Parking Area 1 and on the former golf course.

Pest animal control

Implement pest animal control including rabbits, foxes and feral cats.

Proposed activities include the protection of the Box-Gum Woodland native grassland remnants from future disturbances by renewing the fencing between them and the open space to the north.

What you can do in Bathurst

Explore our campus via the Eco Walk and the adjacent Boundary Road Reserve.

Get involved in active local works and community goups such as:

Lead your own sustainability/biodiversity event on campus with the help of an onsite Student Representative and Clubs Officer.

Bathurst Biodiversity history

The biodiversity report for the Bathurst Campus noted that the site is highly disturbed, as the land operated an experimental farm as far back as 1895.

In spite of this, the report noted that Hawthornden Creek (which runs along the southern boundary of the campus) provides an excellent opportunity for the creation of a biodiversity/wildlife corridor, provided that some of the significant identified erosion issues can be fixed. In 2013, Charles Sturt University partnered with Bathurst Regional Council to address these issues through significant stabilisation works.

One endangered ecological community listed in the schedules of the NSW TSC Act, the ‘White Box Yellow Box Blakely’s Red Gum Woodland endangered ecological community’, can be found in the area with some remnant species found at the western end of the creek. The community is also listed under the Commonwealth EPBC Act as the ‘White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely’s Red Gum grassy woodlands and derived native grasslands critically endangered ecological community’. This community is commonly referred to as Box-Gum Woodland.