About the Catchment Area : Creeks & Rivers

Charleston Conservation Park - Onkaparinga River Catchment

Located near the top of the Onkaparinga River catchment area, Charleston Conservation Park presents a unique and rare snapshot of pre-European biodiversity in the upper catchment.

Charleston Conservation Park illustrates a healthy catchment and provides us with an important model of how native vegetation protects and enhances surface water runoff. This intact native vegetation community is, for the most part, resilient to the invasion of weeds. In addition, the native vegetation acts as a filter, keeping surface water free of eroded sediment.

This rare and precious patch of vegetation in a sea of cleared agricultural land is remarkable as it occurs on wet, fertile soils of which there is very poor representation in our official system of land protection. Areas like this were usually among the first cleared by the early settlers.

The native vegetation community supports mostly Red Gum, Blackwood and sedges in the watercourse and swampy areas. Impressive patches of Rough-barked Manna Gum, SA Blue Gum and Silver Banksia fringe the Park’s drier areas of shallow and rocky soils.

The extensive land clearance of the upper catchment has left almost no other examples of this type of vegetation association and we therefore use Charleston Conservation Park for seed supply for revegetation projects and examples of how our upper catchment watercourses should interact with the wider catchment for optimum health.

History - The Park was proclaimed in 1976

Plants of Charleston Conservation Park
The vegetation association found in Charleston Conservation Park is open woodland comprising a canopy of mostly River Red Gums, Rough Barked Manna Gums over reeds, sedges, native grasses, lilies and orchids. This vegetation association would have once stretched over most of the valleys and creeks of the upper eastern Onkaparinga catchment from Mt Torrens and Springhead, down to Hahndorf and Echunga. Very few intact examples of this vegetation association remain.

A flush of Spring flowers reveals a remarkable number of species including King Spider Orchids, Pink Sun Orchids, Purple Cockatoos, Bulbine Lilies and Vanilla Lilies. Silver Banksias and Red Gums provide all-important nectar-supply well into the summer months which enables the persistence of a large diversity of birds. Nectar feeding birds also eat insects and therefore protect vegetation from potentially harmful levels of herbivorous insects.

Threats to the Park
Over time, the Park has remained surprisingly resistant to invasion by feral plants and animals. This is probably due to its seclusion and lack of pressure from recreation and long-term exclusion of stock. However its small size and isolation from other patches of vegetation make this thriving community extremely vulnerable to disturbances such as fire and disease. Some weed species such as Bulbil Watsonia and African Daisy are breaking out in areas. Hares and rabbits provide unwanted grazing pressure in the Summer months.
Protection for areas such as Charleston Conservation Park from the pressure of feral, invasive species which threaten its overall health, should be a high priority of good catchment management.

Birds of Charleston Conservation Park
More than 70 bird species have been recorded in the park including rare and declining species such as the Black-chinned Honeyeater, Crested Shrike-tit, Diamond Firetail and White-throated Treecreeper. Many can be identified immediately by their distinctive calls when just a few quiet minutes are spent in the Park.

Other Biodiversity
The Park is also home to Western Grey Kangaroos, Echidnas, Ring-tailed and Brush-tailed Possums.