The Lost World

Stepping Stones to linking littoral rainforest remnants within Royal National Park through community engagement

This project enabled volunteers to fence off overgrown areas of lantana, blackberry and crofton weed between littoral rainforest at Burning Palms and the Lost World in Royal National Park.

After decades of degradation from feral deer, lantana, and crofton weed, an endangered sub-tropical littoral rainforest in NSW’s Royal National Park - known as the Lost World - has been regenerated through 750 hours of volunteer labour and a $20 000 Community Action Grant.

The Lost World is remnant sub-tropical littoral rainforest (an endangered ecological community), perched high on the coastal escarpment above Burning Palms Beach within Royal National Park. It is an extremely steep and challenging off-track walk to the site and, consequently, it is not well known to the public. The nearest vehicular access is 2.5 kilometres away so all project materials and tools are carried or flown in by helicopter.

Despite the site’s isolation, 17 members from the Royal National Park Cabins Community Landcare Group, 20 Conservation Volunteers Australia members plus members of Friends of the Lost World have been involved in on-ground remedial work. Collectively they have established two fenced revegetation areas between the Lost World and the remnant patch of littoral rainforest at Burning Palms, some 500 metres to the east.

In 2004, about 40 per cent of the Lost World was fenced off to protect it from deer and as a result, native plant and bird species diversity is much higher within the fenced site than in the surrounding area. A number of other rainforest remnants occur in the area but none are quite the same as the Lost World, which is dominated by several types of fig, giant stinging trees, bird lime trees and a number of other plants that are either absent or not well represented elsewhere in Royal National Park.

Much of the escarpment slope below the Lost World was affected by bushfire in 1994. Since that time, populations of feral deer have grazed the slopes preventing the re-establishment of native tree and shrub species and allowing salt-laden winds to gradually diminish to size of the rainforest. In their place a variety of un-palatable exotic species, with crofton weed being the most dominant, have become well established and now limit the re-establishment of native plants.

Project manager Michael Andrews said the impacts of deer and crofton weed were very noticeable.

“There is very little regeneration of native trees and shrubs with seedlings clearly suffering from heavy grazing pressure,” Michael said. “Crofton weed is the most dominant plant across an area of over 10 hectares.”

Funds have enabled volunteers to establish two fenced areas that protect over a hectare from deer access. Crofton weed has been hand-weeded and there has been a significant increase in the density of native grasses and ground covers.

More than 100 native species have been planted (drooping she-oak Allocasuarina verticillita and hillock bush Melaleauca hypericifolia) in the protected areas. These have been clumped together with the intention of creating dense shrubby habitat for birds and other native fauna. These new patches of native vegetation will create stepping stones between the Lost World and adjacent rainforest communities, so that flora and fauna species are able to move between similar vegetation types. This includes both the physical movement of fauna species, and also the transfer of plant seed and pollen.

Photographic census points have been established. These will monitor changes to vegetation and will provide valuable ongoing feedback for this and similar projects.