The Greater Blue Mountains and World Heritage Area bushfire region covers 7,656,342 hectares, encompassing the Central Tablelands, Greater Sydney and Hunter Natural Resource Management regions. It includes 96 per cent of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and 11 per cent of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area.
Within the Greater Blue Mountains region, Traditional Owners include Darug, Gundungurra, Wanaruah, Wiradjuri, Darkinjung, Tharawal, Awabakal, Worimi and Biripai.
Impacts of the 2019–20 bushfires
More than 1,000,000 hectares in this region burnt during the 2019–20 bushfires.
More than 60 per cent of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area was fire-affected and more than half of this burnt with high or very high severity.
This map shows the extent and severity of the 2019–20 bushfires in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
Text version of image
This map shows the extent and severity of the 2019–20 bushfires in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
Environmental values
Important environmental values impacted by the bushfires that were identified by the Expert Panel for management intervention in the region include:
- Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area
- 10 Threatened Ecological Communities including Upland Basalt Eucalypt Forests of the Sydney Basin Bioregion, Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone and Lowland Rainforests of Subtropical Australia
- 99 animals including the Blue Mountains Water Skink, Broad-headed Snake, Rockwarbler, Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, Koala, Spotted-tail Quoll, Gang-gang Cockatoo and the Stuttering Frog
- 101 plant species including the Wollemi Pine, Benson’s Stringybark, Kowmung Hakea, Fletcher’s Drumsticks, and Paddy’s River Box Eucalyptus.
Photo: dnatheist, licensed with CC BY 2.0 |
Photo: Doug Beckers, licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Photo: dracophylla, licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 |
|
The Broad-headed Snake’s habitat is shrinking through urbanisation and illegal rock removal. A total of 65 per cent of this vulnerable species’ range is within the region, 46 per cent of which was burnt. |
Stuttering Frogs burrow into the soil beneath logs and leaf litter when it’s hot and dry, and when it’s cold. The bushfires burnt 18 per cent of their known habitat in the region. Sightings in other bushfire-affected regions indicate that their burrowing strategy may have helped them seek refuge during the fires. |
The Wollemi Pine was known only through fossils until it was discovered growing deep in Wollemi National Park in NSW in 1994. These critically endangered trees, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs, would have been lost if not for the firefighting efforts of the NSW Rural Fire Service. |
Australian Government bushfire recovery funding in the region
More than $17 million has been invested in recovery of native wildlife and their habitat in the Greater Blue Mountains and World Heritage Area bushfire region. This investment is in two phases.
Phase 1 – Emergency Response
The Australian Government directly invested $3 million in the Greater Blue Mountains and World Heritage Area bushfire region, as part of the initial $50 million investment in bushfire recovery for wildlife and habitats. This includes:
- $1.55 million to Natural Resource Management organisations for recovery actions within the region including the control of pest animals and weeds, and erosion management:
- $550,000 to the Greater Sydney Local Land Services
- $550,000 to the Hunter Local Land Services
- $450,000 to the Central Tablelands Local Land Services
- $552,000 to the New South Wales Government for species specific recovery and monitoring activities including for the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby, Wollemi Pine, Dwarf Heath Casuarina, Megalong Valley Bottlebrush, and fencing Lower Hunter Spotted Gum Ironbark Forests
- $941,000 for four grant projects that will support the Purple Copper Butterfly, threatened ecological communities and the Giant Dragonfly.
Additional funding includes:
- a further $5 million for grant projects where some activities are being undertaken in, or are relevant to, the Greater Blue Mountains region. This includes assessing fire impacts on Golden-tipped Bats and other microbats, and urgent actions to conserve the Euastacus freshwater crayfish
- a significant proportion of the $2 million to the New South Wales Government for pest control across the state.
Phase 2 – Resilience and Recovery
The Australian Government is investing $13 million in the Greater Blue Mountains and World Heritage Area bushfire region under the $110 million Regional Bushfire Recovery Fund to increase the resilience and recovery of fire-affected species, ecological communities and natural assets. This includes:
- $4.66 million to Hunter Local Land Services, Greater Sydney Local Land Services and Central Tablelands Local Land Services to conduct pest animal control programs, weed control, revegetation, erosion control, species-specific actions to support Regent Honeyeater refugia, and Traditional Owner-led cultural burning of country
- $8.33 million to the New South Wales Government to undertake activities such as Aboriginal community-led healing of country, control of weeds and pests, erosion control and actions for species, such as captive breeding for the Giant Burrowing Frog and creating artificial habitat for the Broad-toothed Rat.
This investment was guided by recommendations from a co-design workshop held with stakeholders for the region on 9 September 2020. The workshop report is available on the Workshops and ministerial roundtables page.
A further $1.1 million is being invested in this region through 10 projects supported under the $10 million Bushfire Recovery for Wildlife and Habitat Community Grants Program.
A detailed list of funded projects is available on the Activities and Outcomes page.
Australian Government funding for NRM projects is delivered through the Commonwealth’s broader Regional Land Partnerships (RLP) program. A full list of NRM functions and projects can be found on the NRM Complementary investments page.