• Sydney is the second most popular tourist destination in the world after San Francisco (Getaway Channel 9?) If you believe this you will believe anything True!.
• Sydney Harbour based tourism generates at least $30 million annually from international and slightly more from domestic tourists.
• Tourism figures expect to increase dramatically with the hosting of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
• Local commercial fisheries were valued over $240,000 in 1991-92. Update for 1998 from Fisheries on the way!!!!
• Recreational fisheries were valued at $360,000 in 1991-92. Update for 1998 from Fisheries on the way!!!!
• The region houses the largest maritime container terminal and airport for import and export in Australia.
• one of worlds largest natural harbours - vital port for import and export trade
• provides international / domestic air travel
• hub for major train / road transport across the state

• 86 km of ocean shoreline, 340km of estuary frontage, 38 Ocean beaches, four drowned river valley estuaries (Sydney Harbour, Broken Bay (Hawkesbury), Port Hacking (Bate bay) and Botany Bay) and four coastal lagoons, Manly, Curl Curl, Dee Why and Narrabeen.
• 7 National Parks (Royal N.P, Heathcote N.P., Georges River N.P., Botany Bay N.P., Sydney Harbour N.P., Lane Cove N.P., Garigal N.P.), and part of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
• Sydney has extensive biodiversity - one of the most biodiverse cities in the world
• Remnant bushland in the urban area provide temporary refuges for many bird species when bushfire threatens their more permanent habitat.
• Coastal areas of the region have unique landscapes such as the drowned river valleys of the Hawkesbury Sandstone and associated diverse vegetation communities.

• FLORA
• There are over 34 native vegetation communities in the region, ranging from Hawkesbury Narrabeen Sheltered Forest, Sydney Sandstone Heaths and Scrubs, and Cumberland Plains Woodland Complex to Coastal dune heath, Sedgeland, Banksia Scrub and River-Flat Complex (Greenweb-Sydney, 1998)
• There are approx. 1,500 species of plants within 150 km of Sydney
• New species still been discovered, eg Wollomi Pine
• Endangered vegetation communities - Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, and Cooks River Clay Plain Scrub Forest (Sydney Coastal Councils, 1998)
• 18 Vulnerable plant spp.
• 8 Endangered plant spp.
• FAUNA
• High Biodiversity in Sydney Region 7 species of skinks and 5 species of parrots can be found in Sydney’s urban backyards.
• Endangered animal populations/communities - Little Penguin at Manly Point; Squirrel Glider on Barrenjoey Peninsula and Long-nose Bandicoot at North Head (Sydney Coastal Councils, 1998).
• 3 spp Frogs Vulnerable, 1 spp Endangered
• 2 spp Turtle Vulnerable
• 43 spp Birds Vulnerable, 9 spp Endangered including 3 spp Owl Vulnerable and 3 spp Parrot Vulnerable
• 15 spp Mammals Vulnerable (including 6 spp Bats), 2 spp (Eastern Quoll and Southern Brown Bandicoot) Endangered
• WIDE HABITAT DIVERSITY
• Need to be protect and manage. (Causes: habitat fragmentation, small gene pool and inbreeding, human disturbances, and predation by domestic pets such as dog & cats).

• Sydney’s beaches, harbour, parks & reserves have very high visitor use and are highly impacted as a result
• High social demand of some areas within the region indicate high social value, which needs to be well manage for present and future generations.
• Sydney is a very culturally diverse city resulting in many challenges for sustainable NREM.
• Sydney Botanic Gardens, Taronga Zoo & Museums provide a national educational and recreational facility for many people.
• Popular recreation including; swimming, surfing, sailing, bush-walking, picnicking, fishing etc all rely on the health of the environment in Sydney
• Sydney Metropolitan area is home to almost 4 million people - these people expect and deserve a clean healthy environment to live, work and play in.
• The higher value of many waterfront/ river front/ and bushland suburbs reflects the value people place on these environmental assets.
• provides ports, transport links, air ports etc for the whole state

• stormwater
• sewer overflows ( extremely high proportion of pie per person, 10 times that of Tokyo) ( $2 billion to undertake upgrade of current system to meet basic environmental standards for human contact - $400 million on NSOOS tunnel alone)
• Urban Sprawl ( one of the largest area cities in the world)
• weed infestation / bushland degradation
• clearance of remanent vegetation ( houses, roads, industry)
• urban / bushland boundary impacts
• loss of habitat
• loss of fauna species
• erosion and sedimentation
• over use of resources
• contaminated lands
• chemical spills
• increased water flow / on Hawkesbury decreased water flow
• increased soil moisture levels
• air pollution ( 400/ yr die from air pollution)
• algal blooms
• fish kills
• obstructions to river flow eg/ weirs
• changes to natural flood regimes
• altered fire regimes
• disturbance through tracks, fire trails, recreation etc
• high concentration of industries in catchments
• intensely degraded sites
• 2 most important issues of concern to the public (EPA, 1997 Who Cares About the Environment ?)

1. water pollution and water quality (35%)
1. air pollution (24%)

• 64.7% of Sydney’s population is Australia born
• 30.7% overseas born
• 0.9% Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islanders
• 24.4% Language other than English spoken at home - aged 5+
• creates educational difficulties

• creek signage
• stormwater drain stencilling
• written material in different languages
• newsletters
• web pages
• press releases
• networking
• community display days
• community forums - provide opportunity for community to voice concerns and ask questions. Provide a forum for conflict resolution.
• letter box drops
• visiting schools
• universities
• public meetings
• presentations to community association eg/ lions, apex, chambers of commerce
• support Streamwatch and other school education programs
• development of information resources for schools, libraries etc.

• Community Contract - Hacking/Berowra/Sydney Northern Beaches CMC
• Library information package and display tour - Lane Cove CMC
• Bushfriendly Backyards Video - Middle Harbour
• Educational Video - Cooks River CMC

• LCRCMC - Catchment wide Sediment control policies, and standard sediment control brochure/ requirements
• BWCMC - Statement of Joint intent
• HCMC - Community contract
• Development of Standard noxious weeds lists across councils in catchment - LCRCMC
• TCM objectives within LCNP/ Garigal Plan of Management
• NPWS assisted weed targeting programs
• Involvement of NPWS, Local Government and CMC in threatened species rescues plan developments.
• Facilitating the development of Stormwater Management Plans

• Pollution Source inventories
• Bushland and Water Quality Inventories
• Community Water Quality research projects
• Funding SEPP 19 Review

A very strong and active movement in Sydney, more frequently referred to as Bushcare than landcare.

Large numbers of volunteers involved across Sydney - 1994/5 study ( Rees/Smith)468 groups

• 4, 787 volunteers
• 450% increase in vols over 1990 - 1994
• for the study year work commercially valued at $2, 062 104

Majority of Work tends to involved working on PUBLIC land, for general community benefit and very little individual benefit at all

Local Government are the key player in Landcare/ Bushcare , in association with he metropolitan National Parks:

• 77% of councils with bushland in 1994 managing such programs
• often landowner or nominated manager
• can provide; training, supervision, tools, poison, collection of rubbish, site management, stormwater management, education / community awareness assistance
• Many have positions of Bushcare Coordinated who coordinates, manages the volunteers program
• Also maintain teams of in-house regenerators to assist vols or work on non-vol site
• frequently employ contractors to undertake work on more difficult or inaccessible sites

• bush regeneration
• slow and planned removal of weeds from bushland in a manner designed to encourage natural replacement by natives
• work in small areas
• progresses slowly
• work from good to bad areas
• often primary, secondary, tertiary treatment
• requires specialised training in species identification, removal techniques
• requires supervision and monitoring by appropriately trained person
• work done to a plan, in a site assessment, which needs to be undertaken by a suitably trained and experienced person
• can involve some replanting, usually last resort
• groups also involve in erosion control, stormwater management, education/ awareness programs - often using small scale, low-cost, community based techniques.

BUSH REGENERATION was developed ad a techniques only 25 years ago - fairly new, still evolving. Increasing professional, relationship between professionals and volunteers.

Bushcare/ Landcare movement is fairly recent in area; around for approximately 10-15 years, however most groups have formed in the last 5-10 years.

• groups often isolated from community; ie/ only a small proportion of community
• groups tend to be local residents working adjacent to their properties
• difficult to get people to work on public land, entirely for public benefit
• often small groups - have difficult in raising additional funds
• in areas without large areas of remanent natural vegetation it can be difficult to establish the connection between community and environment; therefore difficult to establish community care groups - these areas need large scale community education and awareness raising campaigns to protect the environment.
• Need to develop better links between groups in a catchment and develop a more regionalised focus to projects. Cross council and cross catchment NETWORKS are just starting to establish; (of coordinators across the region, of groups within councils, within sub-catchments, and now across catchments.). These are very important to effective and successful projects given the small areas worked by individual groups, the large number of land managers involved, and the need to develop large scale regionally focused projects to attract funding

If TCM and Landcare are to survive and flourish into the next decade and beyond, if movement to be recognised and embraced by governments and politicians, it needs to have the understanding, support and commitment of the Sydney based voters. With their support and understanding of TCM, as a principle, will come their increased understanding and awareness of all TCM issues both urban and rural, and the need for on-going funding and support by governments. This in turn will increase the awareness and commitment of their elected representatives and the governments they run. The best way of achieving this is by getting them involved in the TCM structure in the areas they are closest to, and by increasing their awareness of the holistic nature of environment and their connection to it. This is the role Urban CMC’s play.

While Urban based CMC’s have different problems and different needs to Rural based CMC’s, there are differences between CMC’s everywhere - this is one of the fundamental benefits of the TCM approach, it allows the development of flexible and adaptable solutions. There are however some differences in the challenges faced and solutions required that stand out between Rural and Urban CMCs - however what also stands out is the many commonalities, and the role each has in supporting the development and expansion of the other.

There is a need to share information and solutions across the board, we all have lessons we can learn from each other. It is important we present a common front to community and politicians, and to do this we need to increase our understanding of the range of issues dealt with by CMCs and the many forms TCM takes across the state. So we can all better represent each other, and most importantly make TCM more representative.