Surprise...heading home

This morning we were all set to leave Merredin to go to Hyden and then down to Quaalup to see the Fitzgerald N.P., but .....the car wouldn't start! A call to the RAC...the Merredin agent was out of town, so they had to get the man from Mukinbudin (!), 90km north of Merredin.

He tested the battery and that was fine, and couldn't work out the problem. Then he said it was with 'more arse than class' that he noticed a tiny wire was broken....when these were touched together, the car started....cause? A rat had chewed through one wire and made a start on another. (There were rat droppings on the engine).  After a trip into town to purchase a soldering iron (he hadn't brought the car with the full equipment) he fixed it all up and the car started!

Then the problem was me... I felt we would be pushing our luck going on.... out of range for days and further from home and felt too stressed...so we finished up going to Kalgoorlie, heading home.

On the way we stopped for a walk, and saw a lovely dragon that was at least 30cm long....he just froze on the path and we could get close to him.

 

also a big red spider.

 

 

 

We have had a wonderful time  - not so good for the birds, but so many beautiful flowers and stunning scenery.

 

 

 

Merredin

12-13 October, 2012

As we travelled south, we felt we were leaving quiet, remote country and going into the busy world of the wheat belt, an enormous area with each little town having big silos and lots of activity with harvest going on.

At Meckering there was information about an earthquake that happened in 1968. It reached 6.9 on the Richter scale, the biggest that has occurred in Australia. It damaged or destroyed nearly every building, holes 2m deep opened up, ground was pushed up 1.5m in places, and
rail lines were buckled

The pipeline below was first constructed in the early 1900's to take water from Perth to Kalgoorlie...530km...and goes through Merredin. (S & S, remember we read all about it when we were in Kalgoorlie.)

 

 

Before the pipeline was built, the water needed for steam trains was collected from run-off from a huge granite rock in Merredin.....town water also was supplied from this source.

 

 

This water supply was also a factor when Merredin was chosen as the site for the Australian General Army Hospital during WWII. All the personnel, tents and buildings were relocated there from Palestine! and at one time it had over 600 patients. There are extensive ruins in the bushland around the rock.

Later it was relocated again - this time to New Guinea!....made us wonder if Nackie might have worked in it there, as he was in the Field Ambulance in New Guinea.

 

On the rock, we saw a flash of movement, and it was a Ringed Dragon...(Ta-Ta lizard). It runs extremely fast on its back legs then stops and 'waves' its front leg..hence the name. Its camouflage was extraordinary.

 

 

 

A walk in the bushland had a really interesting interpretive board about little smooth cone shaped depressions that can be seen in the sand.

 

 

They are built by Antlion larvae...(if you are interested, Google it ...its amazing) If an ant walks into the trap, the antlion seizes it and sucks it dry.

 

Quandong fruits are bright red now

 

 

These yellow flowers (unknown) are ready for pollination, and the ones that have turned red are already pollinated.

 

 

We learned at Western Flora that an insect's vision uses the ultra-violet spectrum, and yellow shows very bright, advertising the flower's nectar, but red is not visible...a strategy to increase percentage of successful pollination.

 

Isn't nature just amazing?!

Dalwallinu

11th October, 2012

We travelled on back roads for much of the trip to Dalwallinu, and went through several N.P.'s and reserves...a diverse range of habitats, and saw some great flowers, again.

Some unknowns

 

 

 

 

Tiny little Trigger plants (Stylidium)...when an insect lands on the centre, seeking nectar, it sets off a trigger that makes a little 'arm' whip over and touch the insect, thus transferring its pollen. If you lightly touch the centre of the flower with a very small twig, you can watch the response.

 



 

A brilliant yellow/orange Grevillea

 

 

And the highlight of all the flowers, another Verticordia (feather flowers). This time a pink one...just divine. Verticordia means "turns your heart" and it certainly does!

 

 

We went for a lovely long walk through local bushland in Dalwallinu...they have it well organised with signed walks....one street was Strickland St - named after Shirley Strickland who lived here.... for the young ones who probably don't know who she was, she was a legendary 100m sprinter and hurdler who won 3 gold medals, 1 silver and 3 bronze at Oympic Games, including in Melbourne 1956.

 

Dalwallinu claims to be the 'Wattle capital of the world' !...186 species within 100km radius.

 

The weather was threatening - its harvest time for the wheat farmers so hope it doesn't rain!

 



The Pinnacles and Lesueur N.P.

10^th October, 2012

When we first arrived at the caravan park 20km north of Eneabba, we were surprised to find we had cover on the mobiles (Optus) and internet (Telstra). But when we went through the town we found out why …. Mining of rutile sands (containing titanium) by Iluka is big in the area! Eneabba appears to be just an assemblage of dongas and other cheap housing, with a Primary School and a roadhouse.

On a day trip to the coast, we visited Leeman, Green Head, Jurien Bay and Cervantes on the way to see the Pinnacles. Those coastal towns were quite nice but not of much interest to us, but the Pinnacles were fascinating.

We were amazed that they extend over about 40 Ha and you can drive around them as well as go on a walk. They are limestone, and there are different ideas about how they were formed.

 On the way home we came through Lesueur N.P. which is renowned for its diverse range of flora…and we saw some exciting plants!

Lots of Kangaroo Paws (A.manglesii)

 

and some areas were really thick with them...exciting.

 

 Beautiful blue Leschenaultias

There were dense Banksia forests, with really big B.prionotes trees (not in flower) and some B.attenuata

 

Some areas were covered in Grass trees (Xanthorrea)

Macrozamia were in flower

 

The park was named after a natural history artist and botanist who sailed with Baudin and Hamelin on the expedition to chart the WA coast in 1801. We think he would be delighted to see the park that has been named after him!

 Some of the unknowns.. a Melaleuca?

 and this flower looked like a Maltese cross

 

There were large areas ...maybe 100 acre paddocks..of adjacent farmland planted with Tagasaste (Tree Lucerne) as a fodder crop. Apparently it improves the carrying capacity of these poor white sandy soils from 1-2 DSE up to 8-10 DSE! ...rather different from West Gippsland DSE's.

On the way out we saw a big flock of Ring-neck Parrots and about 20 Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos, which was good to see….(the Carnaby’s are an endangered species).

As we approached Eneabba there were some Grevillea trees with brilliant orange flowers … as it was late in the day the light made them even more brilliant.

 Thursday 11th
We are really sorry to be leaving Western Flora - Rob says its the best caravan park he's stayed in and could stay indefinitely...flies might be a problem!

Eneabba

8-9^th October, 2012

Western Flora Caravan Park sounded great for wildflowers in its brochure, and we were not disappointed this time- it lived up to its claim and more!

About 7 km north of the caravan park we stopped to look at a previously burned heathland which was a wonderland of flowers!

As usual, many unknowns,

 

 

 

An Astroloma ?



 Lots of Cats Paws

 

and Dampiera



 

a Petrophile..another genus of cone bush

 



 

And some Geraldton Wax

 

 

On the day we arrived, Alan Tinker, the owner, took a group of about 20 people for a guided walk (no charge) from 4.30 – 6.30pm and it was fantastic!

The focus was not simply identification  (although there was a lot of that!)

Red Lechenaultia

 

 

Pale blue Lechenaultia

 



 

and Scrambling Lechenaultia...we'd seen this bush first near Shark Bay.

 



..... the Wreath flower we saw near Mingenew is also a Lechenaultia...fascinating.

Alan talked about the origin of the sand plains, the pollination of flowers and grasses, adaptations for survival in fire, and so many other interesting topics.

He finished with a session using a dissecting microscope with the image projected onto a screen, to show detail of the structure of some flowers in relation to their pollination. Wonderful!

A Scaevola

 

 

A Calytrix

The next morning we went on a tagalong tour with Alan. There were just 8 people in the group, and he led us to lots of different places to show us a range of flowers

Several different Verticordias (Feather flowers)

 

 

and talked about the intricacies of the pollination strategy of many of them. For example, with the Black Kangaroo Paw, (a Macropidia)

the flowers are arranged so that the flower that is ready to be pollinated is at the top of the stem, facing the bird which comes to seek nectar. As soon as that flower is pollinated, it then moves to one side and the next flower lines up .... amazing!

An area thick with Dampiera

Wildflower time is certainly more than everlastings!

Mingenew

We had intended going to Riverside Sanctuary - it looked really good on the web and in brochures, but when we got there, looked terrible - barren, very basic facilities, no shade, and back in the arid outback so we decided to go straight to Mingenew, right in wildflower territory.

 

and has Australia's biggest inland grain terminal.

 

A sculpture in the local park.

 

 

Flowers on the way...Dampiera ?

and after we had set up in the caravan park (that was very nice and quiet, with big trees and lots of space), we found there was a rodeo on in town so went to have a look, but it was nearly over.

There was a shower of rain early today, but it soon cleared - the weather has been beautiful but nearly always a very strong wind,.... and the flies are often bad.

 

Apparently all this area had little rain over the winter, so the wildflowers have been disappointing and most of the everlastings are finished.

However when we went to Coalseam Conservation Park, which is a renowned spot, the camp host there told us where we could go to see some native foxgloves

and wreath flowers,

so off we went in search of them...and they were fantastic!

We went for a walk along the road - it is all cropping country, wheat and canola.

but some areas are showing salinity problems

 



On the way back, we saw a carpet of pale blue

 



 

and some Dianellas nearly as tall as Rob!

 



Bird Note: There is still not much in the way of birds, but today it was nice to see Red-tailed Black Cockatoos and Mulga Parrots..definitely one of our favorites. The only other birds of interest were the Western Corella, almost at the northern extent of its range, and the Pied Honeyeater that is at the southern extent of its range.