Mount Gibraltar Reserve

Location: Oxley Drive, Mittagong

State Heritage Listed

Mount Gibraltar is an iconic landmark of special significance and is also the highest point between Sydney and Canberra. Mount Gibraltar Reserve was listed on the State Heritage Register by the NSW Heritage Council in December 2013, for both its Endangered Ecological Communities and for the Heritage Quarries Complex.

Mount Gibraltar Heritage Reserve booklet (PDF, 770kB)

Mt Gibraltar Heritage Quarries 2015 Supplement (PDF, 830kB)

Endangered Ecological Community

The Mount Gibraltar Forest was listed in November 2011 as an Uplands Basalt Eucalypt Forest of the Sydney Basin Bioregion (UBEF) Endangered Ecological Community, with protection under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cwth). This followed its protection at a state level in 2001 as the Mount Gibraltar Forest Endangered Ecological Community (EEC) under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (NSW).

Australian Government UBEF factsheet (PDF, 2MB)

Bushcare

For over 25 years the Mount Gibraltar Landcare Bushcare Group has worked cooperatively with Council to protect and restore the natural and cultural heritage of Mount Gibraltar Reserve. For more information about this work see the following link: Wingecarribee Bushcare program (internal link).

Trachyte Entrance Wall

The Mt Gibraltar Landcare Bushcare group, with support from Council, a Veolia Mulwaree Trust Community Grant and funds the group raised from the sale of their book 'The Gib: Mount Gibraltar, Southern Highlands', recently saw a long-held vision achieved with the construction of a Commemorative Tracyte Entrance Retaining Wall.

The wall marks the entrance to the Heritage Quarries Complex, from which the unique Bowral Trachyte (microsyenite) was quarried for 100 years and used in many of the heritage buildings and monuments in Sydney and elsewhere.

Mt Gib Bushcare volunteers celebrate completion of the trachyte wall (PDF 1.3Mb)

Quarries Restoration Project

Additional information about the Mount Gibraltar Quarries Restoration Project, which is focusing on the control of environmental weeds, can be found here: Mt Gibraltar Quarries Restoration Project (internal link).

The Gib book

"The Gib" book was first published in 2007, then reprinted in 2009. Rather than reprint, it is now provided as an electronic book. The contents can searched and chapters clicked to.  Republished using a Creative Commons licence, the book may be downloaded, shared and used for derivative non-commercial purposes. This is a beautiful and important document that describes the unique environment of Mount Gibraltar, its history and the dedicated volunteers working to maintain its environment and amenity. It is shared "for all those who come after us."

Mt Gibraltar Reserve map

Click on the map below to bring it up in a separate window for printing.

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Map of Mount Gibraltar

The map below is interactive - zoom out to see Mt Gibraltar in its regional context; click on the satellite button to bring up an aerial image of the reserve and surrounding countryside.

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Fire Management

The Mount Gibraltar Reserve Fire Management Plan provides details of the fire management policies and strategies for the reserve and Council's statutory responsibilities. It outlines the history and causes of fire in the reserve, along with the hazard levels and assets that require protection. The plan outlines the fire management objectives, fire management units and prescribed fire management regimes designed to protect the environmental, social and cultural values of the reserve and neighboring properties. The fire management plan can be found at the following link:

Reserve fire management plans (internal link)