Cumberland State Forest, NSW, Regrowth of Compartments 8b, 9a and 9b. VAST- 2: Tracking Vegetation Transformation in Australian Vegetated Landscapes

The aim of this project is to compile land use and management practices and their observed and measured impacts and effects on vegetation condition. The results provide land managers and researchers with a tool for reporting and monitoring spatial and temporal transformations of Australia’s native vegetated landscapes due to changes in land use and management practices. Following are the details about the Cumberland State Forest, compartments 8b, 9a and 9b, NSW, Australia.

Pre-European reference-analogue vegetation: the site was originally a wet sclerophyll forest found on Wianamatta group Ashfield Shale.

Brief chronology of changes in land use and management:
1788: Area managed by indigenous Darug people
1788-1824: Region explored - un-modified native forest blue gum/ironbark on shale
1825: Parcel selected by shepherd
1826-1907: Grazing cattle on native pastures
1860: Tree cover likely to have been thinned - selective logging
1908: Commenced clearing patches of trees for improved pasture, chooks, orchards
1909-1937: Managed as improved pasture for grazing
1937-38: Purchased by NSW Forestry Commission
1941-42: Area cleared of remaining native forest trees
1946-73: Area managed for education and demonstration - regenerating native forest
1974-84: Area increasing managed for recreation - regenerating native forest
1985-2012: Area managed for recreation - regenerating native forest.