Puckeys Estate Reserve

Puckey's Estate Reserve is a coastal nature reserve in Wollongong, Australia. It is mainly she-oak forest, but also has sand dune and wetland areas, including areas along Para Creek. It is located in the suburb of Fairy Meadow and is bounded by Fairy Meadow Beach to the east, Squires Way to the west, Elliotts Road to the north and Fairy Lagoon to the south.

Puckey's Estate was traditionally used by the Wadi Wadi people, the Aboriginal tribe in Wollongong. It was once owned by a Mr Courtney Puckey for use as an experimental saltworks and still contains the historic site of Puckey's graduation tower and house, a jetty site he built and plaques on aboriginal and European historic uses for the area.

The area is used by many locals and visitors as a recreation area. It is also used for education purposes; schools and community groups work there, and on some days including Australia Day, runs are held through the reserve, along the main track. The south end of the main track, running through the reserve, comes to a wooden boardwalk, from which Fairy Lagoon, Mount Keira, Stuart Park and parts of North Wollongong can be viewed. Cyclists generally take the paved Squires Way route.

The reserve is also locally famous for its bird-watching opportunities, having over 120 species recorded. It is important to local flora and fauna, but is also the scourge (dealt with by local volunteer groups) of bitou bush, Lantana and other imported weeds such as prickly pear.

Puckey's is managed as a separate section (annexe) of the Wollongong Botanic Garden.

Courtney Puckey, bought the area of land known today as Puckey's Estate by 1905 and set about constructing his saltworks. Puckey's graduation tower stood at 9.15 metres (30.0 feet) high and used a centuries-old process to extract salt. A wind powered pump at the lagoon entrance pumped salt water to the top where it would trickle down through the wooden structure filled with tightly packed tea tree brush-wood branches until it reached several evaporation basins for heating and final salt extraction. Remnants of these basins, Puckey's house, wall and jetty, and the cement base of the tower, are still visible. Puckey had previously experimented with similar saltworks at North Wollongong Beach during the mid-1890s.

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