WHAT IS A GEOREGION?

A GeoRegion is an Australian designation that defines an area that showcases a geological heritage of local, national and international importance. It highlights the geological significance of the area in supporting the vegetation, fauna and human habitation over thousands of years.

GeoRegions can be a single, unified geographical area of appropriate size where sites and landscapes of geological significance are linked together around a central natural or cultural value.

A key focus of the GeoRegion is to encourage the exploration and development of the links between that geological heritage and all other aspects of the area’s natural, cultural, and intangible heritages.

The Ku-ring-gai GeoRegion (KGR) is located within the Sydney Basin Bioregion and has a land area of some 38,000 ha comprising warm temperate rainforest, tall open forest, woodlands, shrubland and cleared and developed areas, as well as some 5,060 ha of estuaries, islands and coastal embayments, and approximately 27 km of coastline. A large part of the natural bushland of the KGR is conserved within six protected areas totalling 21,073 ha (48.5% of the KGR) with the core being Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (KCNP) and parts of other protected areas including Muogamarra Nature Reserve, Berowra Valley National Park, Lane Cove National Park, Garigal National Park and Long Reef Aquatic Reserve. These areas are managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Environment and Heritage Group of the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Other large, protected bushland reserves managed by local government agencies are also within the KGR including Narrabeen Lagoon State Park (388 ha), Dee Why Lagoon Wildlife Refuge (77 ha), Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden (123 ha), and Sheldon Forest and Rofe Park (50 ha). The KGR also samples part of the Hawkesbury Shelf Marine Bioregion and includes three aquatic reserves at Barrenjoey Head, Narrabeen Head, and Long Reef.

The project to commence the process of developing a GeoRegion was initiated by community group Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment(FOKE) in 2018, originally with the objective of nomination of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The project has been expanded considerably to a longer term goal of nomination as a UNESCO Global Geopark, once approved by both NSW and Australian Governments. A pre-requisite of a UNESCO Global Geopark nomination is that a 'defacto' Geopark must be operating for over a year prior to nomination.

For information on the Ku-ring-gai GeoRegion Steering Committee, click here.