North Coast Regional Botanic Garden, Coffs Harbour

In 2018 Australian Geographic magazine surveyed 100 Australian regional botanic gardens, and produced a list of its top ten (though without sharing its criteria). Over the years I've featured such gardens, focussing on those which prioritise native plants. I've shared with you (before they produced their list) AG's number 4, the Olive Pink Botanic Garden in Alice Springs, and number 6, the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Gardens just south of Batemans Bay on the New South Wales south coast. I'd have sworn I'd also 'done' AG's number 1, the Arid Lands Botanic Garden in Port Augusta (South Australia), but my memory has let me down - I shall rectify that in the near future, along with their number 3, the Flecker Botanic Gardens in Cairns (or at least the broader Cairns Botanic Gardens). 

Today however I want to introduce you to AG's number 2, the excellent North Coast Regional Botanic Garden in Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales north coast. On our last visit, when all these photos were taken, it was cool and overcast, not ideal for photography, but the place is superb, probably more so than the following pics suggest! So welcome to these 'must visit' gardens.

The gardens are right in Coffs Harbour, a very busy and growing city of over 70,000 people
in the sub-tropics, 550km north of Sydney and only 400km south of Brisbane.

While the coast and hinterlands are superb, to be honest we probably wouldn't spend time in Coffs were it not for these gardens. Opened in 1988 they cover 20ha of land, half of which comprises original habitat, eucalypt forest and mangroves, as well of course as the plantings of species both local and from the subtropics of Australia and elsewhere. Five kilometres of tracks wend through the grounds. Let's start with the natural areas.

The gardens are set within an elbow of Coffs Creek, which bounds them on three sides. The creek
is tidal and so supports a healthy mangrove forest which is accessed by boardwalks
and interpreted - as is the rest of the garden - by good interpretive signs.

The two southern Australian mangrove species are present - Grey Mangrove Avicennia marina in the strong tidal zone
and River Mangrove Aegiceras corniculatum further upstream where it is less saline.

This lovely mangrove fringe is part of the Solitary Islands Marine Park,
which extends north from Coffs Harbour along the coast for some 75km.

Little Black Cormorant hanging out its wings to dry - as a professional diver it needs them to get wet to
reduce buoyancy - in the mangroves.

(And if you're interested in mangroves - and surely, aren't we all?! - I've written about them in more detail here (the first of three postings).

I mentioned signage in one of the captions above, and they are really very good; here's an example picked more or less at random.

 

In the higher parts of the gardens lovely drier forest predominates, with a mixed overstorey of Pink Bloodwoods, Scribbly Gums and Blackbutts.

The site was logged during the 20th century, but certainly not cleared. However there
is a lot of vigorous regrowth in the forests.

The local Scribbly Gum (one of several related species sharing that name) is Eucalyptus signata
(though it is sometimes regarded as a subspecies of E. racemosa.). It grows from south of Newcastle
to southern Queensland (though if included in E. racemosa it extends to southern NSW as well).
Either way it is a striking tree!

Blackbutt E. pilularis (the lean is not typical!) and grass-tree Xanthorrhoea johnsonii.

An ancient Pink Bloodwood E. (or Corymbia) intermedia, estimated to be 500 years old.

Scribbly Gum bark; the scribbles are the work of tiny moth larvae, chewing the nutritious
cambial layer beneath the bark.

There is a healthy and very attractive population of Xanthorrhoea johnsonii in the dry forest understorey.

Fire-sensitive species such as these Gristle Ferns Blechnum cartilagineum thrive in a situation
where fire has been excluded for some time. They do well in drier situations once established.

The gardens site is adjacent to a former rubbish and night soil dump, but was eventually accepted as a recreation reserve in the late 1950s. However members of the community, including Alex Floyd, doyen of Australian rainforest botanists (who featured in the Terania Creek story that I retold recently), pushed for something more. In 1975 the reserve was gazetted for the “purposes of a Botanic Garden”. In 1979 John Wrigley, another eminent botanist and prolific author with Murray Fagg of books on Australian plants, was Curator of the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. He was engaged (I assume by the Council) to prepare a development plan. When his plan was accepted he was appointed as a consultant to oversee its development and moved to live in Coffs Harbour, where he later remained until his death in 2014. A Friends of the North Coast Regional Botanic Garden group was formed in 1981 and was instrumental in rubbish and weed removal and later development of gardens and paths. Today they are still active in garden maintenance, plant propagation, herbarium work, guiding and fundraising.

At the base of the dry slope the ground is boggy and the natural vegetation is dominated by Broad-leaved Paperbark Melaleuca quinquenervia, though some of the area is incorporated into the planted section.

Broad-leaved Paperbarks over fern plantings, including tree ferns Cyathea sp.

Nearby in this poorly-drained area a palm swamp forest has been recreated, with a boardwalk running through it.

Cabbage Palms Livistona australis and Bangalow Palms Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, both
common in rainforest situations on the east coast, have been planted here.

Understorey species such as Walking Stick Palms Linospadix monostachya (foreground)
are further transforming this section of the gardens.

It was along here that we encountered an utterly insouciant young Grey Fantail bathing in a pool provided by a large dried palm frond.

A young Grey Fantail perched on the edge of the bath, and not at all disturbed by our proximity.

Two species of Elaeocarpus, ancient Gondwanans in the family Elaeocarpaceae, also thrive in this environment, and both have confusing common names! Blueberry Ash E. reticulatus and Blue Fig E. angustifolius also both have pronounced buttresses, even when fairly young. 

Elaeocarpus sp. buttress - I'm not sure which one of the two present this is.

Another significant planting comprises some rare and threatened Australian plants from appropriate climates (though in fact several of them are from the tropics); here are a few.

Veiny Whitewood Atalaya rigida, Family Sapindaceae, found in near-coastal Queensland from Bowen to Gympie.

Daintree Pine Gymnostoma australianum, Family Casuarinaceae (ie the she-oaks), which grows only in a limited area
of the Daintree rainforest in tropical Queensland north of Cairns.

Mount Spurgeon Black Pine Prumnopitys ladei, in the Gondwanan conifer family Podocarpaceae.
This is a very scarce tree in the wild, where it grows scattered between 1000 and 1200 metres above sea level
only on Mount Spurgeon and Mount Lewis on the Atherton Tablelands. It is believed there
are fewer than 1000 mature trees there.

At the edge of the forest picnic areas have been provided, with original forest trees alongside.

Old Blackbutt overseeing one such picnic ground.

Another excellent place for relaxing is by the lovely pond and surrounds right by the entrance.

It's a delight to sit quietly here and watch the world come and go.

For instance, a couple of quintessentially Australian east coast birds came and went while I was there.

This Brush Turkey, one of the old family of mound-builders which incubate their eggs in large compost heaps that
they scrape up with those huge feet, came to drink while I was there.

This male Satin Bowerbird also caught my eye as I sat. I followed him to just outside the gate, and was well-rewarded
for my curiosity.

The bower was magnificent, though there were sadly few natural objects in his collection.

For a while though he was carrying both a peg and a leaf, contemplating where they best fitted.

Unfortunately I'm not sure that the leaf made the cut.

And here he is inspecting - yet again - his very impressive construction. Unhappily for him
no female came by to be impressed while I was there, but since I'm not sure that May
is breeding season even in balmy Coffs Harbour, he may have been just preparing.

So, a very brief introduction to this very lovely gardens, which deserved much more time than the few hours we spent there, and the small sample I've offered you. And it certainly would reward any time you were able to spend there next time you're up that way. Let me know what you think.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 24 OCTOBER
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