Christopher and Anne McArthur are the owners of Cedarvale, a property situated in Jaspers Brush, approximately 6.3km west of Berry, New South Wales. The property has remnant riparian Illawarra rainforest/wet forest along several creek gullies as well as grazing paddocks. Christopher and Anne aim to protect and restore the riparian vegetation corridors to enhance their habitat qualities by removing livestock from these areas and tackling weeds.
The property spans 19 hectares. The land has been primarily used for cattle grazing and agriculture in the past with approximately three quarters of the property being cleared land. The broad vegetation type of Cedarvale is rainforest remnant forest, which is predominantly Coastal Warm Temperate Rainforest with small sections of Subtropical Complex Rainforest and Warm Temperatre Layered Forest. Flora species found in the property’s canopy include coachwood (Ceratopetalum apetalum), brown beach (Cryptocarya glaucescens), brownbarrell (Eucalyptus fastigata) and gully gum (E. smithii). The midstorey is characterised by species such as settlers flax (Gymnostachys anceps), rough tree fern (Cyathea australis), greymyrtle (Backhousia myrtifolia), king fern (Todea barbara), lilly pilly (Acmena smithii), sassafras (Doryphora sassafras) and rough tree fern (Cyathea australis). Vines include wombat berry (Eustrephus latifolius), lawyer vine (Smilax australis), wonga vine (Pandorea pandorana) and snake vine (Stephania japonica). The groundlayer of Cedarvale includes mesic shrubs and herbs and ferns like rasp fern (Doodia aspera), pastel flower (Pseuderanthemum variable) and oplismenus (Oplismenus imbecillis). An extensive and growing number of wildlife is found at Cedarvale, including eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus),wombats (Vombatus ursinus), wallabies, fish, frogs, eels and extensive birdlife.
