Pioneer farmers cleared forests, woodlands and grasslands from Queensland to Victoria to develop the eastern wheatbelt farmlands that have contributed so much to the prosperity of Australia. More than 90 per cent of the forest cover was removed and what remains is highly fragmented; many species, plants, animals and birds, are endangered. Now a reverse effort is underway to restore vegetation types so as to maintain the local flora and fauna for future generations.
The extent of land-clearing can be seen from the Cowra lookout in the city’s centre. This small tree’d hill is in fact a good place to see many bird species, including Eastern Rosellas, Rainbow Bee-eaters, White-plumed Honeyeaters, Rufous Songlarks, woodswallows and raptors.
In the Cowra district the forest cover has been largely removed. Only small pockets of the original grassy woodlands and dry sclerophyll forests remain – on inhospitable steep and rocky hills, on TSRs (Travelling Stock Reserves), and by the road-side. Small patches of riverine forest are seen on river banks. The Cowra Woodland Birds Program encourages re-vegetation and protection of existing woodlands and conducts quarterly surveys to monitor bird numbers.
The Golden Valley Travelling Stock Reserve is one of 6,500 across New South Wales. The TSRs are common land owned by the government to aid movement of livestock across the state. They are too often the only local remnants of original bush and their old trees often provide nesting places for parrots including the vulnerable Superb Parrot.
This dry patch of callitris (cypress pines), ironbarks and other eucalypts is typical of residual hill top bush of the Cowra region. It remains home to many rare and vulnerable species of plants and birds.