Some
of the enduring features of Sydney are the wonderful sandstone outcrops which
are dotted around the city and suburbs. In fact, this metropolis is built on top of a giant swathe of sandstone around
50 metres thick. The eroded matter was brought here around 200 million years
ago, in the form of sandy deposits, by an ancient river. Many of Sydney’s
iconic old colonial buildings are made from this attractive yellow-brown material.
Immense
bulky formations of sculptural sandstone sit heavily at the end of cul-de-sacs, hover broodingly over backyard gardens or majestically frame
our beaches. They were mostly too hard to shift when the bulldozers came
through, so they were often skirted around and left in a lumpen "too hard basket". Today they are somber and
silent reminders of a lost landscape, a forgotten time, an ancient past.
These
rocky edifices also harbour some of our last remnant suburban biodiversity; ferns, trees
and bushes that tenaciously cling to the surviving islands of undeveloped
land. The outcrops don’t have a lot of naturally occurring plant-life on them but the species
that do (or should) exist, are critical to the fauna of these nutrient poor and thermally
stressed environments
Almost
from day one, post European settlement, these native plant refuges have been under siege from invaders. Tenacious weeds were unthinkingly brought here from
overseas such as English Ivy, Morning Glory, Asparagus fern, Mother of
Millions, Lantana, Honeysuckle and Agapanthus. These, and other opportunistic plants such as Fishbone fern are now blanketing the rock faces and
crowding out the indigenous specimens.
Chances are, most of Sydney’s signature rocky outcrops are all
but invisible, literally buried beneath a festoon of introduced species.
One example, among a multitude, is the towering rocky cliff featured below. It was blanketed by a thick green curtain of weeds,
but the promise of something special hiding unobtrusively beneath was still
evident. The
guys from Rock Face Renaissance decided to move in for a exercise in rejuvenation. Check out what happened...
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| This was the subject rock face before the "renewal" | |
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The weeds were gradually peeled back to reveal some hidden natives
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| ...an Eriostemen... |
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| ...and a glorious grass tree emerge "gasping" from beneath the Fishbone ferns |
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| The giant curtain of ivy is also slowly drawn away and underneath is... |
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| Indigenous but barely surviving, Coral fern |
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...and an ancient Fork-fern
(Skeleton
Fork-fern (Psilotum nudum) is one of the most primitive and simple plants
around and its descendants can be traced back 410 million years. They are truly
living relics. Amazingly you can still see them on the rock face adjoining the
Opera House and on Cockatoo Island..most passers-by wouldn’t give them a first
glance, let alone a second one). |
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| An unusual looking Skink also enjoys the new found light |
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