Our group meets every Friday morning from 9.00am until 12.00pm. We usually meet at the end of Kenwick Lane, Beecroft. We would love to show anyone interested in the reserve around our site. We have great morning teas about 10.40am so that would be a good time to visit but contact us first so we know you are coming.
Natural and Cultural Heritage
- Soil derived from Hawkesbury Sandstone & Wianamatta Shale
- Remnant bushland at this site is heritage listed and is regarded as being of high local heritage significance
- Vegetation Community L: E. pilularis - S. glomulifera - A.costata Tall Open Forest
- Site falls within Beecroft Heritage Conservation Area
- Cyril and Ida Byles built their home ‘Chilworth’. They were early environmentalists and bought 3 acres of bushland. Over the years they then added to it buying steep sloping surrounding land. A portion of land in York Street was given to the Boy Scout Association by the Byles family in 1917 in memory of Ida’s brother who was killed in the First World War. The Byles gave five acres of their land to the Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia in 1938 who named it Chilworth Reserve. In 1942 it was given to Hornsby Shire Council as a flora and fauna reserve.
- Beecroft Public School owned two allotments in Mary Street for dispersal of sewerage, and when the school was connected to the sewer in 1965 the ownership of two blocks of land were transferred to the Council. There is evidence of old road construction in the park leading from the end of Austral Avenue. This may have been an old logging road. From the early days people used the area to walk through to Beecroft Station and many of the walking tracks are still used today.
Conservation Status
- Reserve contains significant bushland habitat
- Vegetation community has local conservation significance
Condition/ Impacts
- Except for isolated occurrences of bird spread weeds the majority of core bushland is in fair to good condition
- Regeneration is considerably improving vegetation condition
- Weeds are present to varying degrees in the areas surrounding the main creekline, smaller drainage lines, track edges, road verges and residential property boundaries
- Increased nutrients from stormwater drains
- Encroachment from adjoining residential properties
- Sewer line
- Fill soils
Main Weeds
- Allocasia, ochna, trad, erharta
Comments
- Informal walking tracks
- Part of a wildlife corridor on Devlins Creek adjoining Lane Cove National Park - diverse fauna habitat
(Text and pictures courtesy of Hornsby Shire Council)