Bungendore Bio-region Information
Bungendore lies within Australia's South Eastern Highlands Bioregion, which spans just under the Sydney Basin inland to Orange, Bathurst, and Goulburn, and south through the Monaro and Alpine Region into Northern Victoria.
Climate
The climate is temperate with hot summers (30 degrees Celcius spiking to 40 degrees) and cool winters (down to -1 degrees Celcius with short troughs to -6). Fog is common in autumn and winter, but thunderstorms are infrequent. Strong gales with high winds are common in winter. Rain is variable but not seasonal.
Geology
Bungendore township lies in the middle of a valley running N-S with the Lachlan Fold Belt causing the formation of the Lake George Escarpment to the West. Gibraltar Hill and small mountain ranges, part of the Great Dividing Range, lie to the East of the township.
The geology is composed of palaeozoic granites, metamorphosed sedimentary rocks and tertiary basalt outcrops. During the Devonian Period, the region was an open sea accumulating fine shale, sandstone and volcanic sediments. The soil is shallow red earth on the ridges, yellow textured contrast soil on the slopes and deep coarse sand on the alluvium.
Water Catchment
The town lies in the Lake George water catchment. Lake George is a shallow, dry endorheic lake basin with lunettes and fossil high water tide lines. The main waterway is Turallo Creek which flows from the Tallaganda forest, through Bungendore into Lake George. Turallo Creek flows intermittently in response to rain events.
When water accumulates in Lake George as a result of rain events, it is brackish, almost as saline as seawater and one of the saltiest bodies of water in inland NSW.
Lake George is called Weereewa by local indigenous peoples, which means 'bad water.' There is a theory that the lake may be connected to the nearby Yass River by subterranean aquifers which pass under the surrounding escarpment, and that this connection may explain the salinity of the river.
First Nations
As stated on Wikipedia - The original inhabitants of the region were the Ngambri peoples. There is contention about which First Nations group can lay claim to the region. However, government-commissioned research found that the family who lived in the Ngambri location were part of the Nyamudy/Namadji people who lived on the Limestone Plains and spoke a language similar to Ngarigo spoken on the Monaro Plains.
The Nyamudy/Namadgi people, some 500 persons, consisted of at least eight family groupings, those around Queanbeyan (Ngyemutch), Pialligo, Brindabellas, Isabella Plains (Namwitch), Namadgi Range, and Sullivan's Creek (Ngambri). The name used by the early European settlers for these people was the 'Pialligo Mob' and 'Limestone Blacks". In 1831 the Ngambri area was granted to settler John McPherson who called it Springbank. By the 1860s the Nyamudy tribe under the pressure of the settlements had either moved up to the Monaro or had merged with the Europeans.
Land Use
The land around Bungendore is used for grazing of cattle and sheep. There is a small Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation close to the town, which is owned by the local butcher and grazier. To the SW, between Bungendore and Queanbeyan are several NSW government Radiata Pine plantations. Several cold country vineyards are established at the top of the Lake George Escarpment.
The township is composed of medium to low-density housing surrounded by larger block estates, small farms and large grazing properties.
Environmental Impacts
The area suffers from the consequences of grazing, deforestation, monocropping, and use of fertilisers and pesticides. This has resulted in land degradation, heavily compacted soils, soil erosion, weed infestations, habitat fragmentation, and water insecurity.
Ecological Restoration
- Palerang Riparian Restoration Program - part of the Murrumbidgee Catchment Management Authority Project
- Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council Flood Mitigation project - part of the Bungendore Floodplain Risk Management Plan involving the removal of dense vegetation and creek re-shaping where Turallo and Halfway Creeks meet
- Bungendore Community Landcare Group
- Mulloon Rehydration Project
- Woodland Bird Project - through Molongolo Conservation
- Ngambri Local Aboriginal Land Council
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