According to the NPWS website, "Metropolitan regional parks were conceived by the NSW Government as a way of providing the people of Sydney with green lungs. Regional parks are areas of open space for recreation as well as for conserving fragile ecosystems. This applies particularly in outer Sydney where remnant bushland can be protected and regenerated in regional parks." So the NPWS sees regional parks as offering recreational opportunities in or adjoining areas with high current or future recreation demands, whilst also providing conservation benefits – the order of these objectives is significant.

At present, regional parks occur only in Greater Sydney, not in so-called "rural and regional" areas. The term "regional" relates to the areas that afford recreational opportunities at a regional rather than local scale. The NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning (DUAP) uses the term "regional open space" in the same context when looking at recreation demand for large-scale housing projects such as the North-west Sector (Rouse Hill).

At the time of writing, the gazetted regional parks were Berowra Valley, Leacock, Parramatta River (part), Rouse Hill, Western Sydney and William Howe.

The land was gazetted as a regional park in part because of long-standing community support for council management of the area – support that may have lapsed if the NPWS simply took over the area. Other reasons include impacts arising from close urban settlement on two sides and the presence of a rifle range in the middle of the reserve. The park is now jointly managed by the NPWS and Hornsby Council, through a legally constituted Trust that includes community representation. Gazettal of the regional park has brought substantial increases in funding for essential actions such as bush regeneration, and has arguably provided more security in terms of protection from development and the potential for inappropriate fire regimes.

The park features a recently added example of the endangered community, Shale/Sandstone Transition Forest, along with very small areas of endangered Blue Gum High Forest on its southern margins. Horse riding is prohibited and is an ongoing problem in the Dural area. Dog walking is permissible and occurs mainly on firetrails and sewer access tracks close to housing. Within the current reservation options available, the area is arguably worthy of national park status based on its natural values, especially when compared to the far smaller, more degraded and more intensively used Lane Cove NP and other small and/or urban-affected parks such as Georges River and Garigal NPs. The reasons for the disparity in status are largely political and historical.

Leacock – 32 ha of shale terrain at Leacock’s Lane in Casula. The site supports a highly degraded area of the endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland community with an unconfirmed record of the endangered herb Pimelea spicata, the only western Sydney records of the plants Wahlenbergia luteola and Teucrium argutum, and one of only a few sites for Hydrocotyle verticillata (NPWS, 1997). There is also a record of the vulnerable large bent-wing bat from this site (NPWS Atlas). The site was considered to be in very poor condition due to unrestrained use of recreational vehicles, a high level of weed invasion, rubbish and car dumping when surveyed in 1997 (NPWS, 1997; James, pers. comm.). A recent, very brief, "windscreen survey" by the author confirmed this view.

It has been suggested to the author that the only reason this area was reserved is because it is opposite the home of the local Member of Parliament, who convinced the then Minister for the Environment to protect the land as NPWS estate, presumably because the Member preferred a view onto vegetation rather than housing. Some of the land appeared too steep for conventional urbanisation and may well have been left as a residue lot to be dedicated as open space to be managed by Liverpool City Council. This would have been a more appropriate management arrangement than reservation as NPWS estate.

Parramatta River – comprised of several relativey small components including the former Parramatta Park, Bedlam Bay in Gladesville, Callan Point in Rozelle and Yarralla in Concord, stretching from the central west to the inner west. Primarily highly modified foreshore lands associated with European cultural heritage, though the Yarralla component includes a relatively high-quality remnant of critically endangered Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest. Some areas maintain a modified fringe of mangrove communities.

Rouse Hill – 42 ha (with a further 110 ha pending) of shale terrain of the Cumberland Plain in north-western Sydney, mainly cleared and primarily reserved for European cultural heritage in the form of Rouse Hill House, but also contains small and degraded areas of Cumberland Plain Woodland and a variant of Sydney Coastal Riverflat Forest. Increasingly surrounded by urban sprawl within the North-west Sector housing project, the Riverflat Forest is under threat from proposed stormwater works that are intended to mitigate the impacts of runoff from upstream housing and rural activities. Weed invasion is a major concern in the remnant bushland. Extensive landscaping/replanting has occurred.

Western Sydney – approximately 1,000 ha when complete. A corridor of shale terrain of the Cumberland Plain in south-western Sydney (Horsley Park); mainly cleared for former agricultural use but still contains substantial, though degraded, patches of Cumberland Plain Woodland and Pimelea spicata. Linked by revegetation to Fairfield City Farm, which contains very significant flora including the endangered climber Cynanchum elegans. Formerly part of DUAP’s Horsley Park corridor, originally designated as one of several regional open space areas as part of the 1960s Sydney Region Outline Plan. Includes the Olympic Equestrian Centre, intended for long-term use as an equestrian venue. The impacts of this use are largely confined to cleared and badly degraded areas. Extensive revegetation has occurred and is ongoing. Vandalism has been and likely remains a major concern.

William Howe – near Mt Annan in south-western Sydney; a 50 ha area that contains virtually no remnant native vegetation. The hilltop at the centre of the area was planted with numerous non-indigenous tree species during a 1980s "work-for-the-dole" scheme (P. Cuneo, pers. comm.).

Prospect Lower Canal – is not being actively managed due to disputes between the former owner (Sydney Water) and the State Government about management funds (James, pers. comm.). According to NPWS (1997), the land is a corridor along a former water-supply canal that extends for 7.7 km to a width of 80 m and a total area of 24 ha. It contains Cumberland Plain Woodland that is regenerating very well in many areas with the cessation of long-term mowing. A total of 157 indigenous plant species have been recorded in the area between 1993 and 1996 (NPWS, 1997), which is remarkably high for Cumberland Plain vegetation. The vulnerable Acacia pubescens is present and the endangered Pimelea spicata is known from nearby (NPWS, 1997). Numerous regionally significant plants are also represented in the corridor, which has excellent potential for connection to several other remnants and corridors in the area (NPWS, 1997). The area should be connected to the proposed Prospect Reservoir Nature Reserve, which is still being managed by Sydney Water rather than the NPWS, despite transfer arrangements dating back several years.

Coffs Harbour is apparently being targeted for the creation of a new regional park involving coastal Crown lands currently managed by Coffs Harbour Council (Thompson, pers. comm.). Rumours are that the NPWS is in the process of taking control of these lands and the suggestion has been made that, as several caravan parks and camping grounds are included, the Service is probably more interested in the potential revenue stream than any conservation values the lands may have.

NPWS (1997) Urban Bushland Biodiversity Survey (Western Sydney). NPWS, Sydney

Steve Douglas is an NPA member 
and works as an environmental consultant.

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