The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area (the Gondwana Rainforests), inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1986 with extensions inscribed in 1994, is a serial property which consists of numerous reserves, in eight groups, along the coast and subcoast of mid-eastern Australia. These reserves have been described as the terrestrial equivalent of the Galapagos Islands as each of the separate units, though related to the others, combines to reveal a pattern of evolution of great interest to science.
The resulting proposed additions are located within the same broad geographic range as the existing World Heritage Area (between latitudes 27.8390 S to 32.2035 S and longitudes 151.7102 E to 153.363 E) with a northern extension to include the Bunya Mountains National Park. A total of 689 364 hectares is proposed for addition including all the areas previously recommended by the IUCN to be a part of Gondwana Rainforests (268 678 ha); areas that are contiguous to an existing part of the Gondwana Rainforests (114 429 ha); and areas that had high total scores against the above criteria (306 257 ha).
The proposed additions also add to previously poorly represented rainforest types within the Gondwana Rainforests including the:
Eastern Dorrigo Warm Temperate Rainforest which has Hoop Pine emergents and Nothofagus moorei at low altitudes;
Dry Rainforests in the Manning catchment including Dry Rainforest on limestone in the Upper Manning; and
Tweed Caldera Gully Rainforests which have the highest diversity of species per unit area anywhere in NSW.
Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List
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