Features
Munibung Hill has many and varied features (♥) that have to be seen and experienced to be fully appreciated. This section of the website provides a summary of some of the reasons why people are drawn to this special part of ‘country’ as has been the case over thousands of years. Visit the gallery for a selection of plants and animals to look out for when visiting Munibung Hil The geological aspects that are the foundation for everything that takes place in and around this special place are noted on this page.
(♥) There’s something about this place that gets you in – that keeps people coming back. What is the appeal, the fascination, the magnetism, the drawing power, the charm, the affinity that people have for and with Munibung Hill?
Plant Life
Due to extensive vegetation destruction since European settlement only remnants of the original forest cover remain. Contours reveal catchments comprising of ridges, slopes and valleys containing creeks and gullies – all part of the vibrant fabric that is Munibung Hill.
FOREST CANOPY
Dominant trees on the dry ridges include Spotted Gum, Grey Ironbark, Grey Gum and Forest She-Oak. Turpentine, Red Ash and Red Kamala occur mainly on the sheltered lower slopes.
UNDERSTOREY
Trees and shrubs include Sweet Pittosporum, Hickory Wattle, Sydney Golden Wattle, Muttonwood, Grass Trees, Burrawang and Ferns.
UNDERGROWTH
It is in the leaf-litter mixed with decaying fallen branches and logs, creating a diverse ecology of layers laid down over many years, that we find the greatest array of life at Munibung Hill. Quietly going about their business are thousands of species, most of them still unidentified. They include a huge selection of macro-invertebrates – both carnivorous and vegetarian – along with billions of micro-invertebrates. It would be impossible to attempt to list this richness of life that we are completely oblivious to. For the most part we pay no attention to the fact that all life above this level is utterly dependent on them – we humans included.
In a handful of fertile soil, there are more organisms than all the humans that have ever lived. We know, because we have counted them. Professor Iain Young, University of New England (Armidale, NSW)
A wide variety of invasive weeds are found in disturbed areas, including Lantana, Privet, African Olive, Formosan Lily, Pampas Grass and Morning Glory in the gullies. An ongoing program of weed removal and native seedlings plantings on the southern part of the hill is increasing biodiversity. There is plenty of scope for bush regeneration projects on the Hill: contact Landcare on 49210392 for more information
Fungi and Lichen Life
Much overlooked if not ignored aspects of nature are fungi and lichen. Only in recent times, perhaps the last decade or so has more attention been paid to this largely hidden part of nature. Neither plant nor animal, fungi and lichen occupy a place of their own and deserve much greater prominence when it comes to listing the aspects of Munibung Hill that are worth highlighting and protecting.
In his book Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake makes the case for fungi to be recognised as a keystone species that came into existence well before plants. In fact fungi play a central role in the lives of all plants and animals, including we humans.
It is for these reasons that we devote a separate section to fungi and lichen.
For the most part, not much in the plant and animal world, exists without soil and these two organisms are crucial in the formation and health of soil.
This section is strategically placed between plant life and animal life because fungi entangle the two into what could be described into one indivisible whole, only separated by us for simplification, all the while acknowledging the complexity of what is going on around us. Much of this complexity remains beyond our understanding, all of which reinforces the need to take care of what takes care of us, whether or not we pay them any attention, realise their role or credit them with having paved the way for our very existence.
Examples of the fungi found at Munibung Hill, are noted here and on our Gallery page.
Animal life
Munibung Hill is home to a diverse range of fauna.
Larger animal life
Furred
Mammals include …
CLIMBERS: endangered Squirrel Gliders and Brushtail Possums
DIGGERS: Echidnas
HOPPERS: Wallabies
RUNNERS AND DIGGERS: Bandicoots
(Locally extinct – no longer living at Munibung Hill – Platypus (swimmers), Wombat (diggers)
Scaled
Reptiles include …
CLIMBERS: Bearded Dragons, Goannas and the non-venomous Green Tree Snake
RUNNERS: Blue Tongue Lizards
SWIMMERS: Long Neck Tortoise all calling Munibung Hill their home.
Feathered
Avians include …
GRASPING: Powerful Owl*, Masked Owl*, Eastern Osprey*, Tawny Frogmouth, Nankeen Kestrels, Kookaburra, Swamp-Harrier, White Bellied Sea Eagles*(**)
GRIPPING: White Sulphur Crested and Black Cockatoos, King Parrot, Swift Parrot*, Australian Raven, Noisy Friar Bird and Shrike Cuckoo, White-throated Needletail* – they are the fastest-flying bird in flapping flight, being capable of 170 km/h (105mph), faster than other swifts.
HOPPING & PERCHING: Firetail Finch, Eastern Yellow Robin, Whiptail, Blue Wren, Australian Minors, Brush Turkey
PADDLING: Ducks
WALKING & WADING: Herons
*Threatened species
(**)Other species can be seen soaring above the hill. While the eagles mainly feed on aquatic creatures, such as fish, turtles and sea snakes, they also prey on mammals.
Nightlife
When the sun begins to set and the people retreat to their houses, the forest sees some life turn in for the night, while other animals stir from their hollows, peak out from under their logs or burrows, while others rouse from their roosts. It is a veritable concophony of sounds and sights.
Nocturnal wildlife includes …
FROM THE CANOPY: Powerful and Masked Owls, Tawny Frogmouth, Tiny and even micro bats, Brushtail Possums, Squirrel Gliders
WITHIN THE UNDERSTOREY: Spiders and a myriad of insects
ON THE GROUND: Bandicoots, Native mice, Wallabies
AND the not to be tolerated INTRODUCED FERAL ANIMALS that predate on the young and not so young native animals that are vulnerable to their hunting behaviours. Not only foxes, this includes roaming domestic cats.
Smaller animal life
Ants, Centipedes, Millipedes, Ground-beetles, slugs, snails, spider, slime mould. This list doesn’t do justice to the variety or the complexity or multi-functioning capacity of these unsung aspects of Munibung Hill or any other areas of nature where we live, work and play. 95 per cent of all the animals on Earth are of the invertebrate kind. Entomologists would have us pay closer attention and take into account our ways of living, such that these creatures are given their due recognition and valued for the critical roles they play in keeping us safe and healthy. More at: Invertebrates Australia.
NATIVE FAUNA continue to suffer from habitat loss whether they are feathered, furry or scaly friends. As more land is cleared of trees, native grasses and low lying bush areas around the hill to make way for new housing and industry developments, valuable shelter and food sources are lost. A recent (2017) Macquarie Hills subdivision saw all existing mature trees, native grasses, shrubs and wildlife removed to make way for a 76 lot housing development. By considering our local Fauna friends alongside future developments we can create a better future for humans and all living creatures on the planet.
Threatened flora are listed here in the animal life section because animals need habitat, so threatened flora is of particular concern for animal species. The map at right was accurate as at 2019, since then four (4) additional species have been added – Threatened Flora (+1) and Fauna (+3) as noted below.
Threatened Flora
Scientific name (Common name)
Angophora inopina, (Charmhaven apple)
Conservation status in NSW: Vulnerable
Rhodamnia rubescens, (Brush turpentine, Scrub stringybark) Conservation status in NSW: Critically Endangered Gazetted date: 01 Feb 2019
Syzygium paniculatum, (Magenta lilly pilly) [possibly planted], Conservation status in NSW: Endangered Gazetted date: 31 Jul 2009, Profile last updated: 21 Aug 2019
Tetratheca juncea (Black-eyed Susan)
Conservation status in NSW: Vulnerable.
It is understood that the plants are found in lowlands in a Bloodwood-Apple forest
Threatened Fauna
Eastern Bentwing-bat, Eastern Freetail-bat, Grey-headed Flying fox, Little Bentwing-bat
Eastern Osprey, Masked Owl, Powerful Owl, Swift Parrot, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, White-throated Needletail
Panoramic Views
Panoramic Views can be enjoyed from many locations around the hill. From the coast line East down South across to the big blue of Lake Macquarie all the way to Sugarloaf Mountain Range out West.
Central west views from Awaba Lookout, Quarry Road entry point. From left:
Lake Macquarie Museum of Art and Culture; Speers Point Variety Playground; Boolaroo Speers Point and beyond.
South and east views from Left:
View towards the lake including Warners Bay, from the eastern shoulder just before the last climb to the top; South across the lake; East to Newcastle, Christ Church Cathedral and ocean beyond. Pictures credit: Bob Todd
Underfoot – Geological Heritage
Munibung Hill is an example of the youngest Permian geological series, 251 millions years ago, before the Triassic terrestrial sediments dominate 199 millions year ago.
Munibung Hill has some of the youngest rocks of the Newcastle Coal Measures. These rocks formed during the Permian period approximately 250 MYA, when tectonic plates were colliding and subducting along the eastern side of Australia. This resulted in a series volcanoes and high mountains in the New England region to the north. Rain and snow-melt flowed southward from the mountain peaks toward the ocean and carried gravel, sand, mud and large volumes of volcanic ash. A complex network of channels formed levees, with associated lakes and swamps.
Lake Macquarie was formed following the Pleistecene glaciation 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about 11,600 years ago.
Sea levels only stabilised about 6,000 years ago.
Munibung Hill features and cultural value
Gazing up - the universe beyond
Life on earth is made possible by the unique properties found nowhere else within the galaxy we occupy. The night sky is like a magic ball of glitter except that the glitter in this case is millions of stars in the Milky Way. The Earth is located in the Solar System and the Solar System is located in the Orion Spur.
Our human story must be firmly grounded in the larger universe story. We must visualise ourselves as being one very small part of this much larger whole
this is the
The image at right depicts where we fit in the larger whole, with:
- the universe being the outer ring, then
- the galaxies,
- the solar system (yellow),
- the earth – our ecological home (green),
- the social system – human communities with all the cultures and traditions we construct that give meaning and purpose to our presence on the one and only planet that is our home (blue),
- the economic system – technologies and the stuff we make from the earth utilizing the sun’s energy as the power supply.
There is no ‘away’ on this finite planet spinning around the sun. This is it. We must learn to live within the limits, the boundaries, the laws of the Earth and the larger universe.
We are stardust. We are golden.
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.
– Joni Mitchell
