Gosford
Gosford is a New South Wales suburb located in the heart of the Central Coast Region, about 76 kilometres north of the Sydney CBD. The suburb is situated at the northern extremity of Brisbane Water, an extensive northern branch of the Hawkesbury River estuary and Broken Bay; the suburb is the administrative centre and CBD of the Central Coast region, the third largest urban area in New South Wales after Sydney and Newcastle. Following its formation from the combination of the previous Gosford City and Wyong Shire Councils, Gosford has been earmarked as a vital CBD spine under the NSW Metropolitan Strategy; the population of the suburb was 3,499 in the 2016 census. But there were 169,053 people in the Gosford area in 2016; until white settlement, the area around Gosford was inhabited by the Guringai peoples, who were principally coastal-dwellers, the Darkinjung people that inhabited the hinterland. Along with the other land around the Hawkesbury River estuary, the Brisbane Water district was explored during the early stages of the settlement of New South Wales.
Gosford itself was explored by Governor Phillip between 1788 and 1789. The area was difficult to access and settlement began around 1823. By the late 19th century the agriculture in the region was diversifying, with market gardens and citrus orchards occupying the rich soil left after the timber harvest; as late as 1850, the road between Hawkesbury and Brisbane Water was a cart wheel track. Typical of early Colonial settlement, convicts worked in the Gosford area. In 1825, Gosford's population reached 100. East Gosford was the first centre of settlement. Gosford was named in 1839 after Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford – a friend of the Governor of New South Wales George Gipps. Acheson's title derives its name from Gosford, a townland of Markethill in County Armagh in Northern Ireland. In 1887, the rail link to Sydney was completed, requiring a bridge over the Hawkesbury River and a tunnel through the sandstone ridge west of Woy Woy; the introduction of this transport link and the Pacific Highway in 1930 accelerated the development of the region.
Gosford became a town in 1885 and was declared a municipality in 1886. At the 2016 census, there were 3,499 people in Gosford. 59.6% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were India 4.5%, England 2.9%. 65.2% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin at 3.7%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 33.9% and Catholic 18.2%. Gosford has a humid subtropical climate with mild winters. In summer, temperatures average about 27-28 °C in the day with high humidity and about 17-18 °C at night. Winters are mild with cool overnight temperatures and mild to warm daytime temperatures with lower humidity. Average rainfall is 1333 mm, much of which falls in autumn. Records range from a maximum of 44.8 °C on 18 January 2013, to a low of −4.2 °C on 16 July 1970. Gosford proper is located in a valley with President's Hill on the city's western border, Rumbalara Reserve on its eastern border, Brisbane water to the city's south.
Mann Street, Gosford's main street and part of the Pacific Highway, runs north-south and contains the frontage for much of the commercial district. In the centre of Gosford is a shopping and community precinct, including Kibble Park, William Street Mall, Gosford City Library, the Imperial Shopping Centre and a full range of shops, cafes and services. A renewed period of optimism has followed demolition of several derelict buildings and several infrastructure investment projects including the full fibre optic telecommunications rollout of the National Broadband Network in 2012 in the city's CBD as well as the so-called Kibbleplex project, announced in 2013 that plans to house the new regional library, tertiary teaching rooms and associated organisations. Gosford Classic Car Museum opened in 2016 at nearby suburb of West Gosford. Recent residential apartments have been built in various areas of the Gosford Central Business District. Gosford is situated along an identified business growth corridor between Erina, the West Gosford light industrial zone and Somersby.
Connectivity of main roads and rail travel times between Sydney, the Central Coast, Lake Macquarie and the city of Newcastle are key issues for corporate business relocation to the region. Aged and personal care and retail are major employers in Gosford; as an entertainment hub, Mann Street enjoys good public transport links and is one of the Central Coast's most popular spots for pubs and clubs and in close proximity to cultural and sporting events. Yacht and other boat building has been undertaken by East Coast Yachts since 1964 in West Gosford. Gosford is home to: Gosford Hospital – the largest hospital on the NSW Central Coast Laycock Street Community Theatre - the only professional, proscenium arch theatre venue on the Central Coast The Central Coast Conservatorium Central Coast Stadium in Grahame Park, adjacent to the Central Coast Leagues Club. Built for the Central Coast Bears team in the NRL rugby league competition, since 2005 it is the home of the successful Central Coast Mariners A-League soccer / association football team and was the home venue of the Central Coast Rays rugby union Australian Rugby Championship team.
Central Coast Leagues Club - is the largest community sporting and social club in the region The Entertainment Grounds known as Gosford Racecourse Gosford Showground The headquarters of the Government of New South Wales workplace health and safety regulator, SafeWo
State park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational potential. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U. S. state, some of the Mexican states, in Brazil. The term is used in the Australian state of Victoria; the equivalent term used in Canada, South Africa and Belgium, is provincial park. Similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies. State parks are thus similar under state rather than federal administration. Local government entities below state level may maintain parks, e.g. regional parks or county parks. In general, state parks are smaller than national parks, with a few exceptions such as the Adirondack Park in New York and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California; as of 2014, there were 10,234 state park units in the United States, according to the National Association of State Park Directors.
There are some 739 million annual visits to the country's state parks. The NASPD further counts over 43,000 miles of trail, 217,367 campsites, 8,277 cabins and lodges across U. S. state parks. The largest state park system in the United States is Alaska State Parks, with over 100 sites encompassing 3.3 million acres. Many states include designations beyond "state park" in their state parks systems. Other designations might be state recreation areas, state beaches, state nature reserves; some state park systems include historic sites. The title of oldest state park in the United States is claimed by Niagara Falls State Park in New York, established in 1885; however several public parks or maintained at the state level pre-date it. Indian Springs State Park has been operated continuously by the state of Georgia as a public park since 1825, although it did not gain the title "State Park" until 1931. In 1864 Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove were ceded by the federal government to California until Yosemite National Park was proclaimed in 1890.
In 1878 Wisconsin set aside a vast swath of its northern forests as "The State Park" but, needing money, sold most of it to lumber companies within 20 years. The first state park with the designation of "state park" was Mackinac Island State Park in 1895, first a national park before being transferred to the state of Michigan. Many state park systems date to the 1930s, when around 800 state parks across the country were developed with assistance from federal job creation programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration. List of U. S. state parks Wilderness preservation systems in Carol. "The Civilian Conservation Corps and Wisconsin State Park Development." Wisconsin Magazine of History: 184-204. In JSTOR Landrum, Ney C; the State Park Movement in America: A Critical Review excerpt and text search Larson, Zeb. "Silver Falls State Park and the Early Environmental Movement." Oregon Historical Quarterly 112#1 pp: 34-57 in JSTOR Newton, Norman T. "The State Park Movement: 1864-1933.
"When Forests Trumped Parks: The Maryland Experience, 1906-1950." Maryland Historical Magazine 101#2 pp: 203-224
Australia
Australia the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area; the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea and East Timor to the north. The population of 25 million is urbanised and concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, its largest city is Sydney; the country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians for about 60,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, it is documented. After the European exploration of the continent by Dutch explorers in 1606, who named it New Holland, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788, a date which became Australia's national day; the population grew in subsequent decades, by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored and an additional five self-governing crown colonies established.
On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ten territories. Being the oldest and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils, Australia has a landmass of 7,617,930 square kilometres. A megadiverse country, its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east and mountain ranges in the south-east. A gold rush began in Australia in the early 1850s, its population density, 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometre, remains among the lowest in the world. Australia generates its income from various sources including mining-related exports, telecommunications and manufacturing. Indigenous Australian rock art is the oldest and richest in the world, dating as far back as 60,000 years and spread across hundreds of thousands of sites. Australia is a developed country, with the world's 14th-largest economy.
It has a high-income economy, with the world's tenth-highest per capita income. It is a regional power, has the world's 13th-highest military expenditure. Australia has the world's ninth-largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 26% of the population. Having the third-highest human development index and the eighth-highest ranked democracy globally, the country ranks in quality of life, education, economic freedom, civil liberties and political rights, with all its major cities faring well in global comparative livability surveys. Australia is a member of the United Nations, G20, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Trade Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Pacific Islands Forum and the ASEAN Plus Six mechanism; the name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis, a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times. When Europeans first began visiting and mapping Australia in the 17th century, the name Terra Australis was applied to the new territories.
Until the early 19th century, Australia was best known as "New Holland", a name first applied by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644 and subsequently anglicised. Terra Australis still saw occasional usage, such as in scientific texts; the name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who said it was "more agreeable to the ear, an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth". The first time that Australia appears to have been used was in April 1817, when Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledged the receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia from Lord Bathurst. In December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office. In 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known by that name; the first official published use of the new name came with the publication in 1830 of The Australia Directory by the Hydrographic Office. Colloquial names for Australia include "Oz" and "the Land Down Under". Other epithets include "the Great Southern Land", "the Lucky Country", "the Sunburnt Country", "the Wide Brown Land".
The latter two both derive from Dorothea Mackellar's 1908 poem "My Country". Human habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun around 65,000 to 70,000 years ago, with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea-crossings from what is now Southeast Asia; these first inhabitants were the ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal Australian culture is one of the oldest continual civilisations on earth. At the time of first European contact, most Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers with complex economies and societies. Recent archaeological finds suggest. Indigenous Australians have an oral culture with spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime; the Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas. The northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited s
Cocoparra National Park
The Cocoparra National Park is a protected national park, located in the Riverina region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The 8,357-hectare national park is situated 457 kilometres southwest of Sydney and 25 kilometres northeast of Griffith; the park includes a prominent range of hills such as Bingar Mountain, 455 metres above sea level and Brogden Mountain, 390 metres above sea level, in an otherwise flat landscape. Adjoining the national park to the north is the Cocoparra Nature Reserve; the national park was gazetted in December 1969. The nature reserve was dedicated in 1963 with an area of 4,647 hectares; the Binya-Cocoparra area is classified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area because of its large population of the near threatened painted honeyeater, as well as the diamond firetail. The climate is semi arid; the vegetation communities reflect this, with wattle, orchids and blue-tinged cypress pines. The geology comprises Upper Devonian sandstones and conglomerates.
There are a number of a campground at Woolshed Flat. Protected areas of New South Wales List of national parks of Australia NSW Parks and Wildlife Service Cocoparra National Park website Online version of Cocoparra National Park Management Plan
Forresters Beach, New South Wales
Forresters Beach is a coastal suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia between Terrigal and Bateau Bay. It is the most northerly suburb of the Central Coast Council local government area. Forresters Beach is well known for its reef breaks to surfers; the name "Forresters Beach" comes from Robert Forrester who purchased 50 acres of land in 1861. In the 2016 Census, there were 2,900 people in Forresters Beach. 82.5% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 4.8%. 92.1% of people spoke only English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 30.8%, Catholic 25.0% and Anglican 20.7%. The Glen Group sought to purchase land in 2004 to build a large Retirement Village at Forresters Beach; this was disputed by local residents who felt that with the new village there would be an increase in population density and the "isolation" of the area would become endangered. Local residents went to the local council in an attempt to block the development of the land, this however failed and the village was built.
In 2006 the village became open for retirees to move in. The Village took the place of Forresters Beach Fun Park which throughout the years had been home to Forresters Beach Bowling Alley, Maze, Bungey Jumping, Go-Karts and home of the Forresters Beach Markets, which were popular in the 1990s; the Putt Putt and Swingers 9 Hole golf course no longer remain in the area. The park is divided into two separate areas. Wyrrabalong, meaning'headland looking over the sea' is a word of the Darkinjung people who once occupied the narrow strip of coastline between Forresters Beach and Bateau Bay, which now constitutes the southern section of the park; the southern section is characterised by high, exposed coastal cliffs of sandstone and shale and extensive rock platforms at either end that are ideal for fishing and exploring at low tide. There are woodlands of blackbutt, spotted gum and bloodwood along the plateau, with shrubs and heath on the gentler slopes to the west. Marine and bird life are abundant in the area.
Fauna includes goannas, bandicoots and the tawny frogmouth. Wyrrabalong Lookout is located on Cromarty Hill. There is an adjacent concrete platform with views to the south and west; this site is the major TV tower translator for the Wyong area, broadcasting as far as Yarramalong. A short path leads to Wyrrabalong Lookout on the cliff's edge, 132 m above sea-level, from where there are views south to The Skillion. A 1.6 km walking track leads along the cliffs through the attractive woodland to the other viewing platform, Crackneck Lookout where there is a large clearing and car park with information boards and a picnic-barbecue area
Goobang National Park
Goobang is a national park located in New South Wales, Australia, 296 kilometres northwest of Sydney. It protects the largest remnant forest and woodland in the central west region of the state, where interior and coastal New South Wales flora and fauna species overlap. Named Herveys Range by John Oxley in 1817, the area was reserved in 1897 as state forest because of its importance as a timber resource, was designated a national park in 1995; the park contains a camping ground and a hiking trail, Burrabadine Peak Walking Track, a 3.6 km round trip moderate hike. Goobang National Park is in a temperate to semi-arid zone experiencing hot summers and cool winters with temperatures ranging from 4 to 15 °C in winter and 17 to 32 °C in summer; the heaviest rain fall is in the summer and can range from 645 millimetres on the east side of the ranges to 564 millimetres west of the ranges. There are 459 species recorded in several that are threatened. Tylophora linearis is listed as vulnerable according to the TCS ACT 1995 and endangered according to the EPBC ACT 1999.
Eriostemon ericifolius is vulnerable based on TCS ACT 1995 and Astrotricha linearis only known record west of the Great Dividing Range. Pomaderris queeslandica endangered TSC ACT 1995 and Philotheca ericifoia vulnerable EPBC ACT 1999. There are 135 ecological communities in the South West Slope bioregion, most are considered poorly protected. There are 11 ecological communities in the park; these include red stringybark woodland found on siliceous hillslopes of the Hervey Range. Red stringybark, long leaved box black cypress pine, hummock grass, shrubby low woodland found on siliceous volcanic and sedimentary ranges. Red ironbark in association with black cypress shrubby woodland found on shallow sandy soils derived from sandstone. Red ironbark, red stringybark tumbledown gum heathland found on siliceous ridges and scribbly gum dominated open forest in association with black cypress pine and red ironbark. A further four communities that are protected in Goobang are considered to be of significance.
Mugga ironbark, black cypress, red stringybark, Blakely's red gum and red ironbark woodland which are found on hillslopes and in valleys on the ranges. Buloke and white cypress pine. Riparian Blakely's red gum, apple box, yellow box and inland grey box, with shrub and grass tall open forest in valleys. White box, with black cypress and red gum shrubby woodlands in the hills. Fires are an intrinsic feature of the Australian bush, to ensure continual biodiversity prescribed burns are carried out at the appropriate times within the park. Wildfires at Goobang have occurred due to dry lightning strikes in the hot summer months. There have been 52 wildfires recorded since 1942. There are 31 species of reptiles, 14 species of frogs and 31 species of mammals recorded in the park including echidnas, kangaroos and bats as well as exotics such as rabbits, foxes, goats and dogs. Threatened species include carpet python, Sloane's froglet, brush tailed rock wallaby, grey-headed flying-fox, yellow-bellied sheathtail bat, Corben's long eared bat (Nyetophilus corbeni and New Holland mouse Rabbits pose a threat to the survival of tree seedlings competition with native herbivores.
Weeds such as blackberry are significant as far as causing havoc within the natural environment forming large thickets blocking creeks suppressing native ground covers and providing a hiding spot for feral animals such as rabbits. Exotic grasses and weeds have replaced native undergrowth in most of the scattered white box communities. Grazing in and around remnant woodlands. Clearing of native vegetation that might act as connective corridors between the park and any other patchy native landscapes. Species that require specialized niches and or cannot disperse and colonize suitable habitat will be affected if this current
Garrawilla National Park
Garrawilla National Park was created in December 2005. It covers an area of 937 hectares; this park is located on the northern side of the Oxley Highway halfway between Coonabarabran and Mullaley in New South Wales, Australia. Protected areas of New South Wales
