The region includes the former
mining townships of Kurri Kurri, Heddon Greta, Loxford, Stanford Merthyr,
Pelaw Main, Spion Kop, Weston and Abermain.
Other nearby towns and localities are Buchanan,
Buttai, Cliftleigh, Keinbah, Mulbring, Richmond Vale, Mt Sugarloaf, Mt
Vincent, Sawyers Gulley and Neath.
The whole area has a county feel - it
is a great place to live and to raise a family. There are some nice old
buildings in the towns - churches, schools, the hospital - and of course,
our pubs, almost as old as the towns themselves, and for which we are
becoming quite famous.
The purpose of this web site, is to
highlight Kurri's Natural Attractions. It's one of the best areas
in the Lower Hunter for Bird Observing as there is so much variation in
habitat types. The Tomalpin Woodlands, 3000 hectares of Spotted Gum/Ironbark
forest, incredibly rich diversity in flora and fauna; the Kurri Sand Swamp
Woodlands, in which there are plants unique to this area; and the
Lower Hunter Forest Redgum bushland at Weston.
Kurri is surrounded by important waterways and
dams, some natural, others man-made to produce electricity early in the
20th Century. Wallis Creek, Swamp Creek, Deep Creek and Testers Hollow,
Brown's Colliery Dam at Richmond Vale and Hebburn Dam at Weston, are important
habitats for a huge variety of water birds including the Jabiru and Jacana.
