Barrenjoey, New South Wales

Barrenjoey is a locality in the suburb of Palm Beach, at the most northern tip of Pittwater. The headland is made up primarily of sandstones of the Newport Formation, the top third is a cap of Hawkesbury sandstone.[1] Around 10,000 years ago the headland was cut off from the mainland due to the rising sea level; subsequent buildup of a sand spit or tombolo reconnected the island to the mainland (a 'tied island'). It is the location of the Barrenjoey Head Lighthouse, a lighthouse that was first lit in 1881. In 1995 Barrenjoey was gazetted into Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.[2]

Barrenjoey Headland and Station Beach viewed from West Head
Barrenjoey Headland bushfire, 28 September 2013, viewed from the sea

History

On 2 March 1788, Arthur Phillip named the headland "Barrenjuee" (meaning little kangaroo or wallaby). The name changed its spelling over time, Barrenjoey now being the accepted name since 1966.[3]

Contour survey of part of Barrenjoey Head, Broken Bay - showing position of proposed lighthouse, 1877

Since the 1980s it has been featured heavily in the soap opera Home and Away, during both the credits and the show itself.

Ecological communities

Mapping by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage in 2013 shows Barrenjoey headland containing tiny pockets of Coastal escarpment littoral rainforest, a particular subgroup of the Littoral Rainforest community, which is an endangered ecological community,[4] together with the communities: Coastal Headland Clay Heath, Coastal Sand Tea-tree-Banksia Scrub (on the coastal fore-dune), Central Coast Escarpment Moist Forest, and Coastal Sandstone Foreshores Forest (on sandstone soils derived from either Hawkesbury or Narrabeen geology, and exposed to salt winds).[5]

See also

Notes
  1. John Martyn. "Towards a Richer Understanding of Local Geology,STEP INC, Retrieved February 22nd, 2018".
  2. "Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and Lion Island, Long Island and Spectacle Island Nature Reserves Plan of Management Oct 2014" (PDF). NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. October 2014. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  3. "Barranjoey". barranjoey.com. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
  4. NSW Scientific Committee. (2011) Littoral Rainforest in the NSW North Coast, Sydney Basin and South East Corner Bioregions - Determination to make a minor amendment to Part 3 of Schedule 1 of the Threatened Species Conservation Act
  5. NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, (2013) The Native Vegetation of the Sydney Metropolitan Area, Version 2.0 - VIS_ID 3817

References
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