Dapto - Environment

Dapto is located on the western shore of Lake Illawarra a valuable natural resource and habitat for local wildlife.

Lake Illawarra is a shallow coastal lagoon approximately 31 square kilometres in area. The lake has approximately 39 kilometres of shoreline, very little of it remaining natural. It is predominantly an urban lake with 68% of the shoreline covered in urban or industrial development. The wetland areas of the lake provide habitats that are used extensively by waterbirds.

The following are some of the species found on the lake:

• Pelicans
• Cormorants
• Musk Ducks
• Hoary-headed Grebes
• Black Swans
• Black Ducks
• Grey Teal Ducks
• Herons
• Ibises
• Spoonbills

Mullet Creek contributes to areas of sand and mud flats which gives rise to large concentrations of waders during summer. These mud flats are important feeding areas for these species.

Very little natural forest remains around the lake, where it does it is generally degraded from its natural condition. Most of this vegetation is composed of the swamp she-oak Casuarina glauca. (Mills, Kevin. 1983.)

To the west of Dapto lies the Illawarra escarpment. It ranges in elevation from 220 metres at Garie in the north to over 600 metres at Barren Grounds in the south. The cliffline of the escarpment is formed of Hawkesbury Sandstone up to 130 metres thick. Although rainforest was widespread on the escarpment, there were only a few areas where contiguous rainforest "brush" occurred. During a visit in 1836, Backhouse commented on a walk:

"….to the top of a conical, basaltic hill (probably Marshall Mount) and had a view of Illawarra Lake, the sea, the mountains in the western back-ground, topped by sandstone crags, emerging from the boundless forest, and at the intervening plain, some parts of which are naturally clear." (Mills,K. Jakeman, J. 1995)

The natural vegetation of the Dapto area was drier grassy woodlands and was described in 1857 as being cleared cultivated and lightly timbered.