Natural History
Natural History Index
Related Links:
Hint: use your right mouse button to open a new window to external sites.
- Department
of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
- IUCN - The World Conservation Union
- NSW National Parks Wildlife Service
- NSW State Forests
- QLD - Gondwana Rainforests of Australia
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- World
Heritage Information Network
(links PDF documents)
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Other Interesting Links:
Hint: use your right mouse button to open a new window for external sites.
Introduction to Gondwana Rainforests of Australia (CERRA)
Although rainforests cover only about 0.3 % of Australia, they contain about half of all Australian plant families and about a third of Australia's mammal and bird species.
Selected as World Heritage sites for their exceptional biodiversity or rarity, the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia (CERRA) have an extremely high conservation value and provide habitat for more than 200 rare or threatened plant and animal species.
The parks and reserves are variously comprised of five major recognised rainforest types, and include some of the few remaining stands of old growth (undisturbed) forest in NSW. The balance are made up of large remnant pockets and regrowth areas of rainforest which were able to meet the criteria for World Heritage listing.
Originally nominated as the "Australian East Coast Temperate and Subtropical Rainforest Parks", 16 sites comprising more than 203,000 hectares of national parks, flora and nature reserves, were included in the 1985 World Heritage application.
After being independently evaluated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the nomination was presented to to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), by the Australian Commonwealth Government in 1985.
Most of the nominated properties were accepted for inclusion on the World Heritage List in November of 1986, as the Australian East Coast Temperate and Subtropical Rainforest Parks World Heritage Listing.
Additions to the nomination since the original submission has increased the number of reserves and national parks in the property, with the nomination formalized in 1994, and renamed the "Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia", or CERRA.
In June 2007, CERRA was officially renamed "Gondwana Rainforests of Australia" at the 31st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in New Zealand.
Gondwana Rainforests of Australia currently contains more than 50 World Heritage listed national parks, flora reserves and nature reserves stretching in a broken series of properties of various rainforest types, for more than 500 kilometres, from Boonah in QLD, just north of the border with NSW, to Gloucester in the NSW Hunter region, less than 300 klm north of Sydney. The total area of CERRA is 366 507 ha.; 59 223 ha. in Qld and 307 284 ha. in NSW.
References and Readings
- Tourism NSW Industry News - Insights July 2007
- Executive Officer of CERRA property, Grafton NSW - July 2001
- Environment Australia, World Heritage Unit; brochure - World Heritage Rainforests, Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves, August 1997
- NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Lismore; brochure - Toonumbar National Park, 1997.
- Australia's World Heritage, brochure: Commonwealth Department of Environment, Sport and Territories 1994.
- Under the Canopy, Guide to the Rainforests of NSW: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service 1991.
- A Natural History - Tweed Gold Coast Region: BW Graham, published by Tweed River High School Library 1990.
- New South Wales Rainforests - the Nomination for the World Heritage List (revised): Dr Paul Adam, published by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service 1987.
