Hunter Valley
From Envirowiki
the Hunter Valley is a region on the lower north coast of New South Wales, Australia, which stretches from the ocean to the Great dividing range. it is bordered on the north by the Barrington mountains, the south by the Wollemi National Park and Lake Maquarie, and the Gunnedah Basin on the west.
the Valley is composed largely of open farmland, Dry Sclerophyll forest, open-cut coal mines and the odd bit of rain forest. the human population is around 700,000. and is spread out amongst lots of small towns, and a couple of regional centers.
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[edit] humans
humans in the Hunter valley mostly live in Newcastle, which has a population somewhat more than 400,000. other large centers include Maitland, Muswellbrook, and Raymond Terrace.
the populated areas of the Hunter are generally very low density, and are prone to urban sprawl, and they are generally expanding. often this expansion is accomodated by building new suburbs on relatively valuable native species habitat such as the Tank Paddock, and the Wallarah Peninsula in Lake Maquarie, and the Hunter Economic Zone near Cessnock. this is the case even when there is relativley worthless, degraded farmland in the neighboring areas.
[edit] human activities
the largest activities of environmental concern include Coal mining, agriculture and land clearing, Old growth logging (clearfelling), and fishing.
Coal mining is the Hunter's biggest industry in terms of profits, but these profits near always go to corporations, not people. the Coal industry claims that it provides many jobs for the hunter, but in reality these jobs are often provided to trained proffesionals from outside the hunter, and displace more manual labour (hence job) intensive industries that the hunter is also famous for, such as Wine, Horses, and tourism.
the Hunter valley is the lower end of the Great Lakes Marine Park.
[edit] Biodiversity
anyone know some things about the hunter's biodiversity?
