I am from the NSW North Coast and not your area but from the photos I can
see the usual suspects that are threatening our biodiversity. The shrubs
are mostly Duranta erecta, which gets masses of orange-yellow berries which
are transported into the bush by birds. It is native to Mexico to South
America and the Caribbean. The palms are Golden Cane Palms, a native of
Madagascar, and while not likely to spread too far should be replaced with
local palms. The Lomandras (Mat-rush) are probably OK but most likely not
from the local area. There was one small tree that had been pruned. It
looked like a bottlebrush but again is probably not local.
We developed our garden at Coutts Crossing with only local species grown
from seeds collected in the local area. If there is a nursery in town that
does this great otherwise you will end up with plenty of natives but
probably not local natives. The local fauna is adapted to the local plants
so if you go native but not local then you can create more problems than if
you plant exotics, and I am not suggesting that you do this.
I will send you a paper that I published on how we developed our backyard in
an ecologically friendly way.
We live in a village and the number of native species (birds, mammals,
reptiles and amphibians) that use or have visited the yard is impressive -
over 130 species by the year 2000.
I hope that these comments have been helpful
Regards
Greg
Dr Greg. P. Clancy
Ecologist and Wildlife Guide
Coutts Crossing
NSW
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