 We are helping the original rainforest to come back along 2 km of creek bank. We do that by bush regeneration and by controlling weeds, all aimed at restoring a resilient natural environment. See Current Reports for what we have been doing lately (updated every two months). The original rainforest was progressively eaten into over 60 years, between 1880 and 1940. Fortunately, it wasn't completely eradicated, as can be seen on the 1941 air photograph of Ourimbah Creek. After 1941, agricultural clearing slowed down, especially when the creek was dammed in 1977 to provide town water. Seedlings from remnant stands of trees progressively spread into the surrounding water catchment. Our group's efforts to protect the area started in 2000. Since then, there has been an amazing expansion of the forest, expanding out from these groves of ancient trees. They now are now surrounded by a profusion of saplings, making a thriving young rainforest. All kinds of animal, plant and fungal life find this area congenial, so that it is a "hot spot" of biodiversity. You can find some 350 or so species of native biota listed under biodiversity. Many more are waiting to be identified, so give us a call if you would like to help us with that.
 Here are two tree species of our site, both in the family Myrtaceae and both considered vulnerable in the endangered species list. This upper one is the magenta lilly pilly, Syzigium paniculatum. It is a small tree of the rainforest and characteristic of Ourimbah Creek, although rare elsewhere.
It's one of the least inflammable of trees, so it's a good species to plant if you are in a bushfire-prone area. Possums like to browse its foliage, and our powerful owls eat the possums, so it's a case of an endangered tree making an endangered owl less so.
This lower one is the Wyong paperbark, Melaleuca biconvexa. It's a tree of the backswamps on the floodplain, where its characteristic canopy stands out in air photographs. It burns readily and, in the past, fire probably aided its spread by getting rid of rainforest competition. If cut to the ground by fire it sprouts again from suckers that form on the roots. It would be wonderful to be able to document all the insects and other life forms that depend on just these two species, let alone all the others growing nearby. You can see more photographs of our species under ferns, flowering plants, frogs, fungi and birds.
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