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. 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.
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.
Mammals who rely on the hill and natural habitat for their existence include the endangered Squirrel Glider along with Bandicoots, Echidnas and Possums.
Reptiles are also well represented with Goanna’s, Bearded Dragons, Blue Tongue Lizzards, Long Neck Tortoise and the non venimouse Green Tree Snake all calling Munibung Hill their home.
Scientists now believe our very own human existence depends on the survival of our feathered friends. The hill and it’s remaining natural habitat support a wide variety of Australian birds; White Sulpher Crested and Black Cockatoos, Firetail Finch, Kookaburra, King Parrot, Australian Raven, Eastern Yellow Robin, Whiptail, Blue Wren, Australian Minors, Swamp-Harrier, Brush Turkey, Shrike Cuckoo, Noisy Friar Bird and Nankeen Kestrels can be seen on and around the hill. Other species such as the White Bellied Sea Eagles can also be seen soaring above the hill. While the eagles mainly feed off aquatic creatures, such as fish, turtles and sea snakes, they also prey on mammals.
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 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 L to R: Lake Macquarie Museum of Art and Culture; Speers Point Variety Playground; Boolaroo Speers Point and beyond.
South and east views from L to R: 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
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 and we must learn to live within the limits, the boundaries, the laws of the universe.
