Did you know the bush covering our New South Wales landscape suffers from theft of bushrock? According to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment ‘bushrock’ is defined as “loose, fragile rock found on rock or soil surfaces” – a natural geological process which takes millions of years to occur.
Since the arrival of European settlers, the need for more infrastructure due to population growth has seen bushrock removed from its natural environment and used in landscaping and gardens to recreate natural bush settings. As a consequence, wildlife such as insects and reptiles have been left without homes.
The broad-headed snake, for example, relies on thin sheets of rocky outcrops for their habitat. Their endangered status is directly related to the loss of bushrock.
Many people are also partial to the numerous sunny rocky outcrops of the Blue Mountains, Illawarra Escarpment and, of course, Kangaroo Valley for the beautiful views they provide. Throwing rocks is also a popular pastime in these areas; however, the natural geological cycle takes millions of years to replace the displaced rocks.
With the introduction of the new elective program at Glengarry back in 2022, an opportunity for practical application of the ecology component of the Science course arose. Now in the second year of our partnership with Kangaroo Valley Environmental Group (KVEG), we are starting to see positive results.
At the beginning of the project students carefully mixed a fibreglass reinforced concrete mix and set the mixture in rock-shaped moulds to create realistic-looking artificial ‘rocks’. These ‘rocks’ had the precise shape and thermal properties desired by local endangered broad-headed snakes. In 2008, these specific properties were ascertained by Mr Ben Croak, a habitat restoration specialist from the University of Sydney, and conservation groups between Sydney and Nowra have been applying this knowledge ever since. Glengarry students were able to create 90 new homes for native reptile species in Kangaroo Valley. At the end of the year Greg Thompson, the KVEG project manager who had been guiding the project all year, worked with students to place the rocks at suitable rocky outcrops around the Glengarry campus.
These ‘rocks’ are now monitored by each intake of students, helping track the biological interactions between each species now and into the coming years. First, the spiders, beetles and other crawly creatures move in. Then the geckos, skinks and other small lizards follow as they eat the spiders and insects. Lastly, the snakes – which love a tasty lizard – will initially use the rocks as a hunting ground and eventually as a place to live over winter as the sun exposed rocks provide a warm and safe home in the cooler months.
