When: Tuesday 13 October 2026, 6.30pm for 7pm presentation
Where: Dougherty Community Centre, 7 Victor Street, Chatswood
A light supper will be provided.
Attendance is free but please RSVP here
WEPA is pleased to present a very special talk by Dr John Martyn of STEP on the interconnected natural history of the Sydney Basin.
Join us for an engaging evening as Dr Martyn unpacks the botanical and geological layers of our unique landscape. You will gain a fresh perspective on the rich and varied geology, scenery and flora of the Sydney Basin.
The talk will be based on Dr Martyn’s book, published in 2024, entitled “The Geology and Flora of the Sydney Basin: A Photographic Journey“.
John has said, “This talk isn’t going to reiterate the well-known plant communities of Sydney’s sandstone, shale and other rock types, but take a new and more detailed look at key aspects of the Sydney Basin’s complex succession of sedimentary rocks and the igneous, tectonic and erosional events that have sculpted them and their associated plant communities over millions of years.”
For example:
- Why do the thick sandstones of the Newport Formation (Narrabeen Group) of the Northern Beaches carry a different balance of flora from the quite similar looking Hawkesbury Sandstone? Why don’t spotted gums grow naturally on Hawkesbury Sandstone outcrops?
- What are the distinctive features of the Hawkesbury, as opposed to other sandstones: these play a critical and largely unique role in hosting particular plant communities and species. What role do the terraced hillsides and big rock platforms play in focusing flora communities.
- Recent study of the West Head dyke paints a very different picture to that of published work. This big dyke of dolerite runs east-west across the peninsula, is up to 120 metres wide, and carries a distinct, rich and as yet unnamed flora community.
And there’s much more!”
About Dr John Martyn
Dr Martyn is an exploration geologist and accomplished photographer. He is a longstanding committee member of the Ku-ring-gai environmental organisation, STEP, and has authored many of STEP’s publications.
“The Geology and Flora of the Sydney Basin: A Photographic Journey” is an updated and expanded version of “Rocks and Trees”, published in 2018, with a new objective to encapsulate the Sydney Basin to its outer limits, an area that is two-thirds the size of Tasmania. It is described as a photographic journey through the rich and varied geology, scenery and flora of the Sydney Basin. Dr Martyn will have copies for sale after the talk as well as other books and local bushwalking maps.