Yessabah Nature Reserve Plan of Management

Yessabah Nature Reserve was originally set aside in 1890 as a reservation for public recreation and the preservation of caves. It encompasses a substantial portion of Yessabah Hill, an outcrop of the Yessabah Limestone Belt. The limestone on the reserve has the highest concentration of caves in northern New South Wales, which are used for speleological and educational purposes. The caves also have palaeontological and guano-dependent biota values and are a habitat for cave-dependent bats.

The reserve contains excellent examples of dry and subtropical rainforest on its western margin and wet sclerophyll forest on its eastern margin. This distribution is unusual and might be attributed to the presence of limestone, karst landforms and related soil types on the western side of the reserve. The subtropical rainforest is one of only 2 lowland communities in the Macleay area and contains a small population of the small-leafed laurel (Cryptocarya williwilliana), a rare endemic to the Macleay Valley.