Darlington Land Restoration
The O’Halloran Hill Recreation Park in the southern region of Adelaide contains a variety of landscapes on 293 hectares across the O’Halloran Hill spur. After years of grazing and cultivation prior to the State Government purchasing the park in the 1970’s, there was very little original vegetation cover remaining and consequently limited ability for some areas to naturally regenerate.
An area of open space of this size is highly significant in metropolitan Adelaide and it provides a key link between remnant vegetation communities to the east (such as Sturt Gorge Recreation Park and Happy Valley Reservoir Reserve) and the coast at Marino Conservation Park.
In 2005, 55 hectares of land at Darlington was added to the reserve and has become a targeted project site for the Million Trees Program, in addition to other sites at O’Halloran Hill. The project aims to re-establish large areas of Drooping Sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata) woodland community that once would have occurred in the region, provide habitat for fauna, and enhance the visitor experience to the Park.
The project complements the work done in the Park by the Friends of O’Halloran Hill for more than two decades
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