Cooks River/Castlereagh Ironbark Forest

Castlereagh Ironbark Forest/ Cooks River Clay Plain Scrub Forest
Reserved remnant near a cemetery in Smithfield
Ecology
Realm	Australasia
Biome	Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Borders	Cumberland Plain Woodland Shale Sandstone Transition Forest Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest
Geography
Area	11.01 km2 (4.25 sq mi)
Country	Australia
Elevation	60–100 metres (200–330 ft)
Geology	Sandstone, shale
Climate type	Humid subtropical climate (Cfa)
Soil types	Clay, sand

The Cooks River/Castlereagh Ironbark Forest (CRCIF) is a scattered, dry sclerophyll, open-forest to low woodland and scrubland which occurs predominantly in the Cumberland subregion of the Sydney basin bioregion, between Castlereagh and Holsworthy, as well as around the headwaters of the Cooks River. The Cooks River Clay Plain Scrub Forest is a component of this ecological community, though both belong to a larger occurring community called the Temperate Eucalyptus fibrosa/Melaleuca decora woodland.^[1]

On 10 May 2002 the NSW Government gazetted the forest as a critically Endangered Ecological Community under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995;^[2] and on 17 March 2015 the forest was listed as Critically Endangered by the Australian Government under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.^[3] The community occurs in fragmented patches within the Cumberland Plain Woodland, where it generally grades into it.