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? 

Fungi can be an integral part of bioremediation
Lichen at Munibung Hill

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.

Awaba Lookout
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
Cliff line eastern face. This is the exposure of the Teralba conglomerate

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