Gwynneville - Environment

Gwynneville is a predominantly urbanised suburb located within 2 kilometres proximity to the city centre, and adjacent to the university suburb of Keiraville. A mixture of brick and tile and fibro cottage style single family residences and townhouse, villa and unit style multi residential dwellings dominate the area.

Some small commercial premises and community facilities are also located in the village shops located along Gipps Road.

Gwynneville contains the junction of three major South Coast roads:

The Southern Freeway (F6)
Mount Ousley Road and
The Northern Distributor

The interchange bisects the suburb and involves heavy private and industrial through traffic.

Despite its high density urbanisation and the existence of major traffic infrastructure in the area, Gwynneville retains some important environmental features. It is an essential part of the Keira Green Corridor. Its location between the foothills of Mt Keira and the city makes it an essential link between the prominent escarpment and its associated geography and the flatter urbanised area that is the city.

The streets are well populated with greenery, there is abundant birdlife and a number of bushlands and parks dot the area. Wiseman's Park and the adjacent bushy reserve are a prime example of this. Patches of remnant native grasses dot the park, and a large number of native species grow here including:

Grey Ironbark (Eucalyptus paniculate)
Turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera)
Prickly paperbark (Melaleuca styphelioides)
Blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis)
Woollybutt (Eucalyptus longifolia)
White stringybark (Eucalyptus eugenioides)
Forest Redgum (Eucalyptus tereticornis) (Davis, 1992).

In addition, one of the rarest plants in the Illawarra, Rulingia dasyphylla, grows here, and the Ironbark orchid, Dendobrium Aemulum, has been sighted here (Illawarra Mercury, 27 June 2001).

The mature trees of Wiseman's Park can be considered a nursery for future growth. As part of the local regeneration project, their seed is collected for the generation of saplings which are raised at Wollongong Botanic Gardens. The older and decaying trees also provide important habitat for native fauna (Davis, 1992).

Fairy Creek is another important feature of the Gwynneville environment. It is the last continuous link between the escarpment and the ocean within the Keira Green Corridor. It drains an area approximately 7.6 square kilometres (Davis 1992).

Branches of the creek pass through Gwynneville at three locations:

Near the Eastern end of Murphy's Avenue, then Spearing Parade and Irvine Street, then the foot of the F6 freeway
Near Waitangi Street and the F6 interchange, then Robinson Park near North Wollongong station
Near Acacia Avenue and adjacent bushland reserve, then Wiseman's park and Beaton Park

A January 2000 study of the Waitangi Street site identified a total of 171 plant species, 69% of which were introduced, 25% of which were regional native species, and 6 % of which were native but not regional. The natives encompassed 51 species, with Eucalyptus and Wattle types predominant.

The site was also identified as a refuge for various species of native flora, predominantly self seeded wattles, and fauna, including 94 species of vertebrate fauna across 45 families of fish, frog, reptile, bird and mammal. 85% of these were native, predominantly birds, and three species were observed to be breeding at the site.

Of particular conservation significance, the Grey-headed Flying Fox (Pteropus pliocephalus) was observed to be using the site (Zammit, 2000).