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The Conservation Council is working with the Village Building Company, Friends of Mount Majura, North Canberra Community Council and Watson Community Association to start a community engagement project around Canberra's latest suburban development, The Fair.
The project will help the Fair community become aware of, and involved in the conservation of Mount Majura Nature Reserve. This is because The Fair sits beside the Mount Majura Nature Reserve (see map to right), which is home to a number of rare and special flora and fauna, all of which need protection from rapid suburban development.
The project will allso endeavour to increase sustainable living practices amongst Fair residents, through the provision of education, information and community-building activities.
Below are some of the most endangered species within the Mount Majura Nature Reserve that many Fair residents will have an opportunity to meet:
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Yellow Box – Blakely’s Red Gum
The Majura Nature Reserve has one of the largest remnants of Yellow Box – Blakely’s Red Gum remaining in SE Australia
source: PCL
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Regent Honeyeater
The development area and neighbouring reserve includes an area of woodland and native eucalypt plantings, where four pairs of the nationally and ACT endangered Regent Honeyeater bred in the spring/summer of 1995/96, producing 7 young. This is the most significant breeding event of this species in the ACT. Two pairs of Regent Honeyeaters actually nested in trees at the southern end of the proposed development area, and all the birds utilised the nectar from flowering of large Yellow Box trees on the site as well as in the nature reserve.
The development site is also contained within the recently announced South-West Slopes Important Bird Area.
image source: photo courtesy Dean Ingwersen (http://regenthoneyeater.org.au/grn.php)
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Swift Parrot
Known to occur on seasonal migration in recent years to the woodlands on the lower slopes of Mts Ainslie/Majura. The development will both impact on the connectivity of the Ainslie/Majura area and the nectar resource from winter early/spring flowering trees in the Ainslie/Majura area.
image source: Noodle snacks (http://www.noodlesnacks.com/)
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Hoary Sunray
Woodland within and adjacent to the development site, contains a relatively large number of Hoary Sunray (Leucochrysum albicans) plants. It is likely that the development will destroy plants and significantly degrade habitat.
image source: R.Hill, APII A-15714, (http://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/interns-2006/leucochrysum-albicans.html)
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About North Watson
