Victoria Park Nature Reserve, Victoria Park Rd, Meerschaum Vale, NSW | Photographs: |  | | List: | Register of the National Estate | | Class: | Natural | | Legal Status: | Registered (21/03/1978) | | Place ID: | 249 | | Place File No: | 1/01/118/0004 | | Statement of Significance: | | The Big Scrub rainforest remnants are part of the Mount Warning Volcano lowland rainforests, which have been largely cleared for agricultural purposes since European settlement. Prior to this they formed the major core area of lowland subtropical rainforest in Australia. The Mount Warning Volcano is an area of high species richness, primitive rainforest plants and endemism, and the remnants of the Big Scrub support at least twenty eight plant species which are rare, vulnerable or endangered plants, some of which are primitive Gondwana rainforest genera as well as at least twenty two species of vulnerable and rare species of fauna listed in Part Two of Schedule Twelve of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. The network or mosaic of remnants across the Alstonville-Dunoon plateau are important stepping stones for birds and bats which seasonally migrate between the forests of the coast to the south, and the Nightcap and Border Ranges. The remnants are important genetic pools for seed dispersal between rainforests in north-eastern New South Wales. The remnants have been and will continue to be used as very significant research sites, particularly for researching the effects of human land use and forest fragmentation on rainforest ecology, a topic of national and international concern. The remnants demonstrate the range of lowland rainforest alliances of the volcano Victoria Park Nature Reserve is significant for its diversity with 121 species of native trees and shrubs and twenty nine wet forest birds (of which fifteen are rainforest dependant). This indicates that the area is a particularly important site in terms of the overall maintenance of the Big Scrub remnants. The reserve contains a fine representative example of the subtropical rainforest dominated by ARGYRODENDRON TRIFOLIOLATUM. Victoria Park is a habitat of eight nationally vulnerable or rare plant species. These plant species are: ARCHIDENDRON MEULLERIANUM, BALOGHIA MARMORATA, FLOYDIA PRAEALTA , MACADAMIA TETRAPHYLLA , OCHROSIA MOOREI , Quassia sp. 2, TINOSPORA TINOSPOROIDES and TRICHOSANTHES SUBVELUTINA. The area is also the only known habitat of a flightless burrowing carabid beetle (NURUS ATLAS) and one of the few known habitats of a rare christmas beetle (TRIOPLOGRAGTHUS GRISEOPILOSUS). NURUS ATLAS is a relic but highly specialised beetle of Gondwanan origin that is of research significance to biologists and biogeographers. | | Official Values: Not Available | | Description: | The Victoria Park Nature Reserve is one of the Big Scrub remnants. These subtropical rainforest remnants are all that remain of an area of rainforest which occurred mainly on the low basaltic Lismore plateau and outlier plateau remnants. This rainforest has been estimated to have exceeded 75,000ha in extent and has been reduced in extent to a current area of approximately 556ha (0.74%). The remnants are typified by a high species diversity and the presence of rare flora and fauna or dependant fauna. Within the Big Scrub four major floristic suballiances are recognised. These are: ARGYRODENDRON TRIFOLIOLATUM Suballiance; CRYPTOCARYA OBOVATA-DENDROCNIDE EXCELSA-FICUS spp.-ARAUCARIA Suballiance; CASTANOSPERMUM AUSTRALE-DYSOXYLUM MUELLERI Suballiance and ARAUCARIA (dry rainforest) Suballiance.
The Victoria Park Nature Reserve is a small triangular shaped nature reserve situated on the edge of a low basalt plateau and surrounded by cleared land. The 8ha of rainforest at Victoria Park is dominated by ARGYRODENDRON TRIFOLIOLATUM. The forest has a Classical three storey structure. The rainforest in the park contains 121 species of native trees and shrubs, twenty nine wet forest birds, of which fifteen are rainforest dependent and eight plant species nationally listed as rare or vulnerable.
Victoria Park is the only known habitat of the large, heavily built and flightless carabid beetle (NURUS ATLAS). Little is known on the biology of the beetles of this genus except that they live in burrows and that the females nurture the larvae at the bottom of the burrow. This level of care of young is unusual for beetles. There are eleven other species of Nurus and all are confined to forested regions of eastern Australia. It is thought that nurus is derived from a winged carabid stock that was probably widespread in ancient Gondwanan times. Close adaptation by the stock to the relatively stable forest environments of this time, was followed more arid. This led to the evolution of a suite of highly specialised species, such as NURUS ATLAS. Like most highly adapted organisms these beetles are no longer able to cope with rapid change: they have lost their former mobility and versatility and have in a sense become prisoners of their environment. It is therefore not surprising that many of the Nurus species have highly restricted distributions, similar to that of N. ATLAS. For example NURUS BREVIS is only known from the nearby Lismore Rotary Park Big Scrub remnant. | | History: Not Available | | Condition and Integrity: | Most of the remnants have remained at their current size for the last fifty years. Past grazing and selective logging have caused ground and canopy disturbance to some remnants; however, the current canopy of the original remnants is continuous with occasional emergents suggesting well formed rainforest.
Many remnants show regrowth around the edges: much of this is the exotic species camphor laurel (CINNAMOMUM CAMPHORA). Other exotic species occurring within remnants are privets (LIGUSTRUM spp.), asparagus fern (PROTASPARAGUS PLUMOSUS) and Lantana spp.
The absence of some native mammal fauna from the smaller remnants has the potential to alter some long term natural restoration processes within the rainforest. The presence of at least a subset of rainforest dependent species of birds in all remnants with bats in some remnants and documented movement of this fauna between remnants suggests that the major ecological functions of the Big Scrub rainforests are maintained by a network of remnants across the plateau. Current community action to maintain remnants should improve their future condition and integrity.
The Victoria Park Nature Reserve, in the context of the above, is in quite good condition. | | Location: | | About 17.5 ha, located 2.5 km west-north-west of Meerschaum Vale and 7 km south-south-west of Alstonville. | | Bibliography: | Adam P (1987). New South Wales Rainforests The Nomination for the
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3. Prepared by Planners North Pty Ltd. Unpubl. Rpt. |
Report Produced: Tue Jan 30 20:40:15 2007 |
