Geoheritage in New South Wales — a reassessment of sites from the register of the national estate

Abstract

The geology of New South Wales is diverse, spanning Paleoproterozoic to modern materials and their various associated landforms and soils. In recognition of the intrinsic geological value of the State, around 150 geological sites were nominated to the now defunct Register of the National Estate, with the objective of geoconservation. However, these sites did not encompass the full range of geology of New South Wales; neither did they offer registered sites any protection. Analysis shows that the types of sites nominated were biased towards sedimentary and igneous rocks, and fossils, with under representation of metamorphic rocks, site-restricted soils, geomorphology and hydrogeology. To test the utility of the Brocx and Semeniuk ‘Geoheritage Toolkit’, a subset of the Register listings was re-examined, focusing on the Sydney Basin. Within the Sydney Basin, 59 nominated sites were reassessed using various geoheritage categories and the hierarchical framework of scale of the Toolkit. Four sites within the Sydney Basin were found to have features of international to national significance, and to have national historical value. These sites will need to be renominated for State and National listing. Clearly, to ensure that University teaching sites, as well as stratigraphic and lithologic type sections and reference sites, reflecting the geodiversity of New South Wales are conserved for future generations, a greater number of sites need to be put forward for heritage listing.