Global Event: Sydney’s environmental heritage – Ku-ring-gai

Visit 2025 World Environment Day map and see FOKE’s events shared with the world!

When:

• Thursday 5 June 2025 (World Environment Day) booking HERE
• Saturday 7 June 2025 booking HERE

About the UN Environment Programme

The UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. See the United Nations Environment Programme website HERE

Meet: Annie Wyatt Park, cnr of St Johns Avenue & Henry Street, Gordon (opposite Gordon Railway Station)

Start: 9.45am for 10am start. Finish: around 1pm

Itinerary: Annie Forsyth Wyatt Garden, Gordon Railway Station, catch train to Killara, Killara Railway Station, catch train to Lindfield, Lindfield Station, catch train to Roseville, Roseville Railway Station, catch return train to Gordon, Concluding words at Gordon Railway Station.

Housekeeping:

• Bring your water, hat and wear comfortable shoes.
• Bring your Opal Card, as the tour involves train travel from Gordon to Roseville.
• Toilets are available at Gordon, Killara, Lindfield and Roseville railway stations.

Gordon

Annie Forsyth Wyatt Garden

Corner of Henry Street and St Johns Avenue, Gordon

Looking down bushland path to Henry Street (south)

Importance of restoration bushland

Blackbutts on corner of Henry Street and Ravenswood Avenue, Gordon

Looking up towards St Johns Avenue

Sydney Turpentine tree, St Johns Avenue, Heritage Park

Find out how Ku-ring-gai Council is greening our streets and reducing stormwater runoff.

World Environment Day, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the host nation, the Republic of Korea, are mobilizing communities across the globe to #BeatPlasticPollution.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s Video Message for World Environment Day 2025:

This World Environment Day focuses on solutions to beat plastic pollution.

And rightly so.

Plastic pollution is choking our planet – harming ecosystems, well-being, and the climate.

Plastic waste clogs rivers, pollutes the ocean, and endangers wildlife.

And as it breaks-down into smaller and smaller parts, it infiltrates every corner of Earth: from the top of Mount Everest, to the depths of the ocean; from human brains; to human breastmilk.

Yet there is a movement for urgent change.

We are seeing mounting public engagement…

Steps towards reusability and greater accountability…

And policies to reduce single-use plastics and improve waste management.

But we must go further, faster.

In two months, countries will come together to hammer-out a new global treaty to end plastic pollution.

We need an ambitious, credible and just agreement this year.

One that covers the life-cycle of plastic, through the perspective of circular economies…

That responds to the needs of communities…

That aligns with broader environmental goals, the sustainable development goals, and beyond…

And that is implemented fast and in full.

I urge negotiators to return to talks in August determined to build a common path through their differences and deliver the treaty our world needs.

Together, let’s end the scourge of plastic pollution and build a better future for us all.

Thank you.

Gordon Railway Station

• Gordon Railway Station Group, STATE Heritage listed. St Johns Ave, Gordon, 02 9847 8458
• Close proximity to Pacific Highway. Air Quality:  Fuel cars are a major contributor to air pollution. Burning gasoline and diesel in internal combustion engines releases various pollutants, including carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter, which negatively impact air quality. 
• RIdgeline. Views to the Blue Mountains – a river; Eccleston du Faur inspired by it and led him to work to created the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park; Alex Colley 2000 – World Heritage listed it
• Cloxe proximity to Mona Vale Road, the road that leads from forests to the ocean
• Hawkesbury RIver – north
• Sydney Harbour – south
• Lane Cove RIver – west
• Middle Harbour – east
• The railway line was part of Ku-ring-gai’s transformation into a garden suburb. The railway was crucial for commuters, aligning with town planner John Sulman’s vision for Ku-ring-gai as a garden suburb
• 1927 electrification of line in preparation for opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge
• 2014, the bus stop on the station’s western side was demolished to make way for a three-storey carpark and bus interchange. The new interchange opened in early June 2015
• Gordon Station is part of Ku-ring-gai’s Green Corridors, supporting biodiversity including its Critically Endangered Blue Gum High Forest and Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest (STIF)
• Views – Garigal National park, Northern Beaches Hospital
• Finger bushlands valleys that lead to the national parks
• Ku-ring-gai is a national park catchment
• Gordon Bat Colony
• Powerful Owl
• Burgoyne Street SSD

Ku-ring-gai Bat Colony and nesting of Powerful Owls

Killara

• Culworth Avenue Carpark is a Ku-ring-gai Council carpark.
• Selkirk Park features remnant Blue Gums, part of the Critically Endangered Blue Gum High Forest, tied to Ku-ring-gai’s timber history (1810s, transported by convict Joseph Fiddens)
• 1810s onwards the timber for Sydney’s housing was supplied by Ku-ring-gai’s tall forests and transported on the Lane Cove River-. Convict Joseph Fiddens is remembered as the most famous river boatman
• Bora rings in Killara

Looking towards east Killara – butteflies, Gustavous Waterhouse

Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest

• Swamp Oaks and Swamp Paperbarks dominate Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest (SOFF) in moist areas close to rivers and estuaries. Other species such as Lilly Pilly, Cheese Tree, Common Silkpod and Slender Knotwood thrive in SOFF. 
• Swamp Oak Floodplain fact sheet
• These forests provide important wildlife corridors and winter feed trees for many mammals and birds, especially cockatoos. 
• SOFF has been threatened by land clearing, weeds, water pollution and changes to soil salinity. It has been estimated that less than 30 per cent of original coastal floodplain wetlands, including SOFF, now remain. Remaining patches within Ku-ring-gai and are found adjacent to Middle Harbour in East Killara, East Lindfield and Roseville Chase, the Lane Cover River at Lindfield and at Bobbin Head in North Turramurra.
  
  

Coastal Upland Swamp

Swamp Oaks and Swamp Paperbarks dominate Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest (SOFF) in moist areas close to rivers and estuaries. Other species such as Lilly Pilly, Cheese Tree, Common Silkpod and Slender Knotwood thrive in SOFF. 

Swamp Oak Floodplain fact sheet

These forests provide important wildlife corridors and winter feed trees for many mammals and birds, especially cockatoos. 

SOFF has been threatened by land clearing, weeds, water pollution and changes to soil salinity. It has been estimated that less than 30 per cent of original coastal floodplain wetlands, including SOFF, now remain. Remaining patches within Ku-ring-gai and are found adjacent to Middle Harbour in East Killara, East Lindfield and Roseville Chase, the Lane Cover River at Lindfield and at Bobbin Head in North Turramurra.

Why do forests matter?

Forest are critical for both environmental health and human well-being. They provide habitat to over half of the world’s terrestrial species. They play a pivotal role in combating climate change through n carbon storage and reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, thus averting more extreme global temperature rises.

We cannot have a sustainable future without forests and they play an indispensable role in meeting international climate goals and limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Forests also provide a multitude of benefits that are crucial for the health of our planet and our well-being. Forests protect us during extreme weather conditions, such as storms and floods. Their ecosystems supply us withh clean drinking water.

Urgent action is needed now more than ever
Despite these benefits, the world faces the challenge of ongoing deforestation, which is a major contributor to as much as 21% of total greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the agriculture, forestry and other land use sector. The impact of deforestation is profound, undermining climate resilience efforts.

Yet, to fully unleash forests’ mitigation potential and contribute to Paris commitments and biodiversity targets, a coherent planning and financing pathway is essential. This need becomes even more pressing as we approach key milestones such as COP30, aiming for significant progress in forest conservation and climate action by 2030.
Investing in forests not only addresses climate change and biodiversity loss.

The Australian government is investing in renewable energy to get us to net zero. However, it fails to see the critical role of forests.

Forests need to become a universal political priority.

Learn more about the state of forests here.
Learn more about the importance of forests here.
22 May 2020 Report The State of the World’s Forests: Forests, Biodiversity and People
Authors: UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

As we were putting the finishing touches to The State of the World’s Forests 2020 (SOFO), the world came face to face with the unprecedented challenges of the COV ID-19 pandemic. While the immediate global priority is to tackle this public health emergency, our long-term response must also address the underlying causes of such a pandemic.
Read report
The degradation and loss of forests is one such contributing factor, disrupting nature’s balance and increasing the risk and exposure of people to zoonotic diseases. Understanding and keeping track of the state of our world’s forests has never been so important.

State of the worlds forestsDownload

Lindfield

Climate Change

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

2025 is a critical year for climate action, as governments submit a third round of five-year national climate plans (NDCs) ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Belem (COP30). 2025 will also mark the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. 

Without intensified efforts, current projections show that global temperatures could rise by 2.6–3.1°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. While this is a marked improvement from the 5°C increase projected in 2010, the world remains far from the 1.5°C Paris Agreement goal. 

Restoring forest ecosystems improves water resources and reduces natural disasters while investing in climate-resilient buildings cuts emissions and protect people from extreme weather events.

Buildings & construction is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases

2025, UNEP is keen to promote governments who are developing and implementing innovative and sustainable solutions and policies that drive climate action and deliver positive benefits to people’s health and well-being. 2025 focuses on solutions relating to buildings and construction (as well as methane, sustainable cooling including energy efficiency, clean air, and forests). 


Buildings and construction sector is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The production and use of materials such as cement, steel, and aluminum have a significant carbon footprint.


‘Building Materials and the Climate: Constructing a New Future’, a report developed by UNEP, Yale CEA in the framework of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), highlights the urgent need to develop new models for cooperation on the decarbonisation of building material. The report also lays out policy recommendations to galvanize rapid action on decarbonising building materials through a three-pronged solution (“Avoid-Shift-Improve”).



This report highlights the urgent need to develop new models for cooperation on the decarbonisation of building materials, if the world is to reach its goals for net zero emissions from the built environment sector by the mid-century. It focuses on three urgent pathways that must be facilitated by supporting stakeholders across the lifecycle of the built environment sector in order to decarbonise: i) AVOID extraction and production of raw materials by galvanising a circular economy; ii) SHIFT to regenerative material practices wherever possible by using ethically produced low carbon earth- and bio-based building materials whenever possible; and iii) IMPROVE methods to radically decarbonise conventional materials.

Mental Health

Energy of lifts and dryers

Roseville

What happens on the land impacts on the oceans and our beaches

Source: https://cdn.oceanservice.noaa.gov/oceanserviceprod/ocean/help-our-ocean.pdf

What we do on the land significantly impact oceans through pollution, climate change and habitat destruction.  

Urban run-off, sewage effluent discharges and plastic waste, contaminate creeks, rivers, Sydney Harbour waterways, beaches and oceans. Climate change, driven by human activities, also affects oceans through warming, acidification, and sea-level rise, further impacting marine habitats and biodiversity.

Water quality is degraded in many areas by high nutrient and sediment loads, heavy metals, chemical pollutants, faecal bacteria and organic wastes, and periodically does not comply with guidelines for protection of aquatic ecosystems. The largest impacts have been caused by elevated nutrient levels and sedimentation and include widespread loss of seagrass beds and eutrophication of coastal waters. Parallel losses in invertebrates and fish have been linked to declines in coastal fisheries, while algal blooms include toxic species that have contaminated shellfish and pose human health threats. loss and smothering, further reducing nursery areas for coastal fish.

The most impacted areas occur adjacent to major coastal cities, where pollutants enter the sea via a wide range of point and diffuse sources and habitats have been highly modified through urban development.

Northern Sydney’s major sewerage outfall, the Northern Suburbs Ocean Outfall Sewer (NSOOS), is located at North Head. The NSOOS transports wastewater from the northern suburbs, including areas as far west as Blacktown, to the North Head Water Resource Recovery Facility. 

Raw sewage discharges during heavy rainfalls remain a problem due to overloading of treatment plants and illegal
stormwater connections and often can close Sydney beaches.

Duffys Forest Ecological Community

Duffys Forest Ecological Community (EC) ranges in height from 11 – 20 metres, dominated by Red Bloodwoods, Black Ash, Smooth-barked Apple and Stringybarks. It is also home to threatened plant species including Port Jackson Heath, Caley’s Grevillea, Curved Rice Flower, Hairy Geebung and Glandular Pink-bell.

View Duffys Forest EC fact sheet(PDF, 683KB)

The forest provides layers of habitat for a range of native wildlife.

Only 15 per cent of the original Duffys Forest EC now remains, mainly in Warringah and Ku-ring-gai.

Estuarine saltmarsh

Estuarine saltmarsh is usually found behind mangroves in tidal areas. Salt-tolerant communities of herbs, grasses, rushes, sedges and reeds provide food and habitat for fish, crabs, birds, molluscs, insects and spiders. Saltmarsh is threatened due to changes in sediment and tidal flow, stormwater run-off, weeds, human disturbance and climate change.

Saltmarsh fact sheet(PDF, 462KB)

Saltmarsh are important to fish as they provide sources of food, habitat and shelter when inundated at high tide. Crabs are common in saltmarsh communities and are a significant food for several fish species. 

In Ku-ring-gai you can find small pockets of saltmarsh in the tidal areas of Middle Harbour, usually around creek outlets such as Northern Creek, Southern Creek, Gordon Creek and Moores Creek.

Return train to Gordon

View from train.

Gordon

SUMMARY: Key Issues from Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment (FOKE) on Ku-ring-gai Council’s TOD Alternative

1. Abandoning Federal, NSW and local environmental protections
   FOKE is gravely concerned about the environmental impacts of the Preferred Scenario (pressured by DPHI and to be approved by NSW Minister for Planning) on Ku-ring-gai’s critically endangered ecological communities, including the Blue Gum High Forest and Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest, both listed as critically endangered under state and federal legislation.
   
   
   The intensified development risks further loss of tree canopy, vital for maintaining Ku-ring-gai’s biodiversity and mitigating urban heat. FOKE warns that clearing or fragmentation of these habitats, even indirectly through expanded development zones, could accelerate biodiversity extinction, threatening native species such as powerful owls, microbats, and other flora and fauna dependent on these ecosystems. The lack of comprehensive environmental studies exacerbates these risks, leaving Ku-ring-gai’s ecological assets vulnerable.
   
   
2. Climate Threats, Particularly Bushfire Risks
   FOKE is deeply concerned about the climate-related risks posed by Preferred Scenario (pressured by DPHI and to be approved by NSW Minister for Planning), particularly the increased bushfire threat in Lindfield due to its proximity to bushland and the presence of dense vegetation, including Blue Gum High Forest and Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest. The intensification of development, with high-density buildings up to 800m from the station, could heighten bushfire risks by placing more residents in fire-prone areas without adequate mitigation measures. FOKE argues that the absence of climate risk assessments, including bushfire hazard studies, in the TOD planning process endangers Lindfield’s community and undermines resilience to climate-driven extreme weather events.
   
   Ku-ring-gai is the ‘lungs of Sydney’. Ku-ring-gai’s giant trees keep Sydney cool. More important than ever with extreme heat waves.
   
   
3. Insufficient Environmental Studies
   FOKE emphasizes the absence of critical ecological studies risking unsustainable development, straining local infrastructure and exacerbating environmental degradation. No sufficient studies on the cumulative impact of increased housing densification across Greater Sydney and how Sydney is an integrated landscape. Nor are there any population studies assessing the impact of the NSW Government’s Transport Oriented Development (TOD) rezoning between Roseville to Gordon that demands an additional 23,200 dwellings (estimated 60,000+ additional residents) that will be built over the next 20 years and which will irreversibly transform Ku-ring-gai that will be unrecognisable to what we see today.
   
   
4. Is the NSW Government gas lighting Ku-ring-gai about its environmental sensitivity. At the moment the NSW Government is in denial about the importance of protecting urban environments and particularly Ku-ring-gai – one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in Sydney.
   
   
5. Other issues: Cumulative impact; Zoning as a key threatening process; Urban forests – hollows – remnant forests

UPCOMING FORUM: PLASTIC TURF DANGERS

TUES 10 June 2025, 6-9pm, Ku-ring-gai Town Hall, 1186 Pacific Hwy, Pymble

For more information contact: Kristyn Haywood, Convenor Voices of Ku-ring-gai enquiry@voicesofkuringgai.org

In 2023 scientists presented evidence about the dangers of placing plastic turf on the Norman Griffith Oval, West Pymble at the Ku-ring-gai Town Hall. Regrettably Ku-ring-gai Council did not listen to this evidence and community concerns.

The community then took Ku-ring-gai Council to Court in an attempt to protect the surrounding Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest and nearby Quarry Creek, surrounding the Normann Griffith Oval. Despite an excellent case, the community lost the court case.

Ku-ring-gai Council has recently announced they have terminated the contract with Turf One and are now looking into other options. $7 million + has already been spent on the project to put artificial turf on Norman Griffith Oval.

Forum will discuss:

• new ways to build climate-resilient, high-quality sporting fields.
• the NSW Government’s new Best-Practice Guidelines for Sporting Fields
• expert insights from the latest AgEnviro and Natural Turf Alliance
• progress on the Norman Griffiths Oval and other synthetic and natural turf field projects
• the environmental, health, and community risks of synthetic fields
• practical next steps for securing greener, safer public spaces for future generation.
  
  

PLEASE write a letter about what you have learnt on this walk to:

• Chris Minns NSW Premier office@premier.nsw.gov.au
• Paul Scully NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully: https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/ministers/minister-for-planning-and-public-spaces  
• Mark Speakman NSW Leader of Opposition: Liberal.Leader@parliament.nsw.gov.au
• Scott Farlow Shadow NSW Planning Minister scott.farlow@parliament.nsw.gov.au  
• Matt Cross, MP for Davidson (Roseville, Lindfield, Killara & Gordon) davidson@parliament.nsw.gov.au
• Cr Barbara Ward (Gordon Ward)  bward@krg.nsw.gov.au Mobile: 0447 081 824
• Cr Indu Balachandran (Gordon Ward) ibalachandran@krg.nsw.gov.au Mobile: 0457 411 083
• Ku-ring-gai Councillors councillors@krg.nsw.gov.au
• Ku-ring-gai Council: krg@krg.nsw.gov.au  
• National Trust (NSW) Board of Directors info@nationaltrust.com.au
• Sign onto Save Greater Sydney Coalition email savegreatersydneycoalition2@gmail.com
• Send your photos of this walk to Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment (FOKE) info@foke.org.au
• Send copies or your letters to FOKE info@foke.org.au
• Sign onto receiving FOKE Newsletters HERE
• Join FOKE as a member. Details at www.foke.org.au
  

Dear …………………………….

On Thursday 5 June 2025, I attended Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment’s (FOKE) World Environment Day that celebrated Sydney’s environmental heritage – Ku-ring-gai.

During this walk I was distressed to learn …………………………………, amazed to discover ……………………………. and very concerned about ……………………………………

I respectfully ask you to ……………………………………….

Yours sincerely

……………………………………….

References

Defining Moments Influenza pandemic, National Museum Australia HERE

IMPACT FROM THE OCEAN/LAND INTERFACE HERE

Charles Musson HERE

Gustavus Athol Waterhouse HERE

Grey-headed flying fox HERE

appendix-4-land-eco-consulting-independent-assessment-of-potential-