East Killara sits east of Killara, on a sandstone plateau that drops into the gullies above Middle Harbour. It became a separate suburb in 1994. The Dictionary of Sydney describes it as surrounded on three sides by bushland, and by my overlay about a third of the suburb is actually inside Garigal National Park. Killara itself is a shale-clay suburb. East Killara is almost all sandstone.
This guide is part of my series on North Shore suburbs. I've overlaid the East Killara suburb boundary on the NSW Government's soil and vegetation maps, and looked separately at the part outside the national park, where the houses are.
What grew in East Killara before 1788
| Plant community | Whole suburb | Outside the national park |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney Coastal Enriched Sandstone Forest | about 47% | about 70% |
| Sydney Coastal Sandstone Gully Forest | about 40% | about 21% |
| Sydney Enriched Sandstone Moist Forest | about 7% | about 4% |
| Sydney Coastal Shale-Sandstone Forest | about 2% | about 3.5% |
| Sydney Coastal Coachwood Gallery Rainforest | about 1% | about 1% |
Red gum forest on the plateau
Most of the land where people now live was Sydney Coastal Enriched Sandstone Forest. BioNet describes it as a tall, shrubby forest on slightly enriched sandstone soils, with a canopy that very frequently includes a high cover of Sydney red gum (Angophora costata), commonly with red bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera) and Sydney peppermint (Eucalyptus piperita). Underneath grew a sparse layer of small trees, including sweet pittosporum (Pittosporum undulatum) and she-oaks, over a shrub layer. The NSW Government estimates about 61% of this community has been cleared.
Gully forest towards Middle Harbour
The slopes into Garigal National Park were Sydney Coastal Sandstone Gully Forest, with Sydney peppermint and red gum over small trees of NSW Christmas bush and old man banksia (Banksia serrata), and a dense shrub layer on rocky benches. This community has fared better than most: the NSW Government estimates only about 15% of it has been cleared.
To work out which of these your block belonged to, try my which plant community guide.
East Killara soil type: plateau sand and rock
| Soil landscape | Whole suburb | Outside the national park | What it's like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gymea | about 22% | about 32% | Sandy soils with rock benches, permeable, very low fertility |
| Hawkesbury | about 53% | about 32% | Steep, rocky, shallow sand, extreme erosion hazard |
| Faulconbridge | about 10% | about 15% | Level sandstone crests, shallow sandy soils, very strongly acid |
| Lucas Heights | about 8% | about 12% | Hard-setting yellow clay soils, stony, low fertility, holds little water |
| Lambert | about 6% | about 8.5% | Shallow sands on exposed ridges, perched water tables |
What that means in the garden
Most blocks (Gymea and Hawkesbury): the soil survey describes sandy, highly permeable soils with very poor fertility and very low phosphorus and nitrogen. On the steeper Hawkesbury ground, the soil is shallow and broken by rock, commonly water repellent, with an extreme erosion hazard. That suits the local sandstone plants and makes life hard for plants that want rich, moist soil.
On the flat crests (Faulconbridge and Lambert): shallow sandy soils, generally less than 50 cm deep, on level or exposed sandstone. The survey rates Faulconbridge soils as very strongly acid with low water-holding capacity. On Lambert ridges, water can perch on the rock in wet seasons, so a sandy garden can still be waterlogged after rain.
In the west of the suburb (Lucas Heights): the closest thing to clay in East Killara, a hard-setting, stony yellow clay with low fertility.
In practice, East Killara is a natives suburb. Choose plants from the local sandstone communities, go easy on phosphorus, mulch to hold moisture, and use a wetting agent if water beads on the surface. My native plant finder can help with the shortlist.
How the 1800s changed East Killara's soil
This is the honest part: I haven't found much reliable history for East Killara before the 20th century. It wasn't a named place, and the main histories of Killara are about the railway side of the suburb. What the records do show is how late the land was sold. Sale plans held by the State Library of NSW show a Killara subdivision along Cunliffe Road and Koola Avenue in June 1949, a sale of "Crown Lands, East Killara" covering Koola Avenue, Cunliffe Road, Saiala Road and Deakin Place in May 1958, and a further sale of 21 allotments in Churchill Road and Fairbank Avenue in April 1965.
What that meant for the soil:
- Large parts of East Killara were still Crown land after World War II, and were sold for housing from 1958 onwards.
- The steep Hawkesbury sandstone, which the soil survey rates as generally not capable of urban development, is still bush, and much of it is in Garigal National Park.
- I haven't found a reliable record of 1800s farms or orchards here, so I'm not going to guess how much of the soil was cultivated.
East Killara gardens today
Mid-century houses on sandstone
With land sold from the late 1940s to the 1960s, many East Killara houses and gardens are post-war. The council's Springdale heritage conservation area is listed under Killara, but none is listed for East Killara itself.
Living next to Garigal National Park
With bushland on three sides, the most useful thing an East Killara garden can do is keep weeds and garden waste out of the bush. The soil survey notes that privet, lantana, morning glory and wandering jew wash into the sandstone valley floors with sediment. My weeds guide covers which plants to replace first.
Working on your garden in East Killara
I work across Sydney's North Shore, including East Killara (see my Ku-ring-gai area page). Nearby suburbs in this series are Killara, East Lindfield, Gordon and St Ives.
Sources
- NSW DCCEEW, State Vegetation Type Map, pre-1750 Plant Community Types (map service VIS/SVTM_NSW_1750_PCT), queried 13 Oct 2026
- NSW Spatial Services, NSW Administrative Boundaries, Suburb layer (East Killara, 315 ha) and NPWS Reserve layer (overlay: about 109 ha, 35%, inside Garigal National Park)
- BioNet Vegetation Classification, PCT definitions 3592, 3595, 3176 and 3038
- NSW DCCEEW, Soil Landscapes of the Sydney 1:100,000 Sheet (Chapman & Murphy 1989; map ed. 4, 2009), map service Soil_Landscape/Sydney queried 13 Oct 2026
- NSW DCCEEW eSPADE, Hawkesbury (ha) soil landscape report, from Chapman & Murphy 1989
- NSW DCCEEW eSPADE, Gymea (gy) soil landscape report, from Chapman & Murphy 1989
- NSW DCCEEW eSPADE, Faulconbridge (fb) soil landscape report, from Chapman & Murphy 1989
- NSW DCCEEW eSPADE, Lucas Heights (lh) soil landscape report, from Chapman & Murphy 1989
- NSW DCCEEW eSPADE, Lambert (la) soil landscape report, from Chapman & Murphy 1989
- NSW DCCEEW eSPADE, Mangrove Creek (mc) soil landscape report, from Chapman & Murphy 1989
- Dictionary of Sydney, East Killara (place record)
- State Library of NSW, Killara subdivision plans (content list)
- "Ku-ring-gai Council, Heritage conservation areas (list of HCAs by suburb, history of the listings, and note that fences, trees and gardens contribute to significance), read 13 Oct 2026