Queanbeyan Nature Reserve

The Queanbeyan Nature Reserve is a protected nature reserve that is located in the Southern Tablelands region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The 67ha reserve is situated approximately west-south-west of the City of Queanbeyan.The low, undulating terrain of the reserve supports remnants of two threatened ecological communities - Natural Temperate Grassland and grassy Box-Gum Woodland. A population of the threatened species Button wrinklewort Rutidosis leptorrhynchoides is present within the reserve, and the threatened species Golden Sun Moth Synemon plana has also been recorded.The reserve is managed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.HistoryThe Queanbeyan area is part of the traditional lands of the Ngunawal people. European settlement in the Queanbeyan area commenced in the 1820s and the township developed on the Queanbeyan River, about from the current Queanbeyan Nature Reserve. The land now protected by the reserve was largely used for grazing sheep and cattle. Evidence of early settlement include a windbreak of large pines on the western boundary, dating to the early 1900s, and the site of a former dwelling and garden near the eastern boundary.Park establishmentThe present northern section was dedicated as Queanbeyan Nature Reserve in March 1989, having been previously managed by Queanbeyan City Council as a Crown Reserve for Municipal Purposes which included the Queanbeyan rubbish tip. This section of the reserve is bordered by the Queanbeyan-Michelago tourist railway, horse paddocks, a residential area, and a former rubbish tip site. In 2004 The NSW Government gazetted a larger area of circa southern addition to the reserve - separate to and south of the existing northern section. This newer area, previously managed by the NSW Department of Housing, is bound by Lanyon Drive to the east, Hoover Road to the north and the Queanbeyan-Michelago tourist railway line to the west.