Location – The park is located at the eastern end of the Prince Henry Heights spur, tucked between houses that front Prince Henry Drive and Panorama Crescent, and the lower/one-way section of Prince Henry Drive.
Access – By a laneway between 6 and 8 Panorama Crescent or by a fire track from the one-way section of Prince Henry Drive. Both accesses have gates that are usually locked to vehicles.
Area – The park is a small bushland park of approx. 1.73 hectares with a perimeter of approx. 850 metres.
Topography – The park lies on the southern slope of a spur of the Range, is moderately steep and includes the head of a gully that drains to the south.
Soil – The soil is stony, very shallow basalt clay with numerous basalt cobbles underlain by large, vaulted basalt masses.
Vegetation – The area is Eucalypt woodland with upper canopy trees mostly yellow box. Lower trees include wattles, soap trees, kurrajong and woody weed species like privet1 and celtis2. Much of the area is infested with thick lantana3. There are native vines and climbers including snake vine, native jasmine, cockspur, barbed wire vine and wombat vine. Kangaroo grass and Dianella do well, as do many herbaceous natives. They have stubborn competition from Green Panic4.
The annual report describes recent work undertaken. Volunteers meet on the third Saturday of the month from 9 am – 12 pm. Contact David at David at panorama.crescent.park@outlook.com.
1 Privet: Broad leaf privet (Ligustrum lucidum) – produces up to 10 million seeds each growing season. Plants can live up to 100 years. Displaces rainforest species, invades riparian vegetation and disturbed sites, forms thickets, destroying native animal habitat. Irritates hay fever sufferers.
2 Celtis (Celtis sinensis) can develop into a 12-metre high tree. It is an invader of riparian habitats and is particularly successful in areas where the original vegetation has been disturbed. Thousands of small, orange berries are produced and are dispersed when eaten by birds and animals.
3 Lantana (Lantana camara) is a heavily branched shrub that can grow in compact clumps, dense thickets or as a climbing vine. It forms dense thickets that can smother and destroy native vegetation and are impenetrable to animals, people and vehicles. Currently, lantana covers more than 5 million hectares of subcoastal New South Wales to Far North Queensland.
4 Green panic is an environmental weed in Queensland, the Northern Territory and north-eastern New South Wales. It is a large, clumping, long-lived grass growing up to 3 m tall. Its large and much-branched seed-heads bear large numbers of small flower spikelets.