Lou's family lived in Wollongong when she was little and her father was just embarking on his life as a community pharmacist. However her family's connections with this busy city on the coast south of Sydney go back well before that, and they survive to this day. It was to catch up to some of this family that we spent a few days there late last year, when we (inevitably) discovered the botanic gardens.
Wollongong occupies a long strip of land between the sea and the sandstone escarpment, and this escarpment provides a superb backdrop for its 312,000 inhabitants.
Mount Keira from Wollongong Botanic Garden. |
Wollongong still produces huge quantities of steel, the port bustles and the coal mines on the escarpment still churn out the product, though presumably for all our sakes those days will end. However there are other engines driving 'the Gong' these days, especially higher education and even tourism. Wollongong University has a good reputation, and right on its boundary lies the youthful but impressive Wollongong Botanic Garden.
In 1929 Arthur Hoskins bought 30 hectares of land there, mostly dairy farm but later featuring a professionally designed and managed garden around his house which he completed in 1939. Just 12 years later in 1951 he donated 18.5ha of it to the council to develop as a botanic garden. (I would, for no good reason, usually say 'gardens' there, but it's officially the Botanic Garden, so I'll stick with that for this post.) In 1981 Hoskins' house was leased by the council to the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music, who still occupy it.
Professor Peter Spooner of the UNSW, a pioneering landscape designer, prepared a master plan in 1963 and the first plantings (of azaleas) began the following year. The garden opened to the public in 1971, though it had been informally accessible for the previous three years.
Mature Blackbutt Eucalyptus pilularis, growing by the path in one of the forest sections. |
While garden beds were being laid out during this time, we were more interested in the fact that, in the early 1980s, a series of 'landscape' plantings were established, to replicate the wet and dry eucalypt forest types typical of the area. Here are some more photos taken along the forest paths, which we largely had to ourselves during our visit on a warm afternoon.
Part of the newly-planted cycad collection. |
Pritchardia minor is a small Hawaiian palm, highly endangered (like most Hawaiian palms) and restricted to less than 200 mature trees on two mountain ridges on just one island. The abysmal story of the unique Hawaiian birdlife is fairly well-known, but the situation of its endemic plants is no better. |
Grass trees Xanthorrhoea sp. |
Hillock Bush (not sure why) Melaleuca hypericifolia is fairly common on the south coast, I think especially on sandstone. It is truly a beauty. |
Dorrigo Waratah Alloxylon pinnatum, another stunner, this one from the warm temperate rainforests of the Dorrigo Plateau and the Border Ranges further north. |
These delightful Red Kangaroo Paws Anigozanthos rufa are from a whole continent away, in the south-west of Western Australia. |
... plus others like this glorious Bird-of-Paradise flower from South Africa. |
Rainbow Lorikeet Trichoglossus moluccanus feeding on a flowering Xanthorrhoea spike. |
Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles bathing enthusiastically. |
But, the story of the Wollongong Botanic Gardens doesn't quite end there. In the 1980s, for reasons lost to me at least, the gardens took on the management, as 'annexes' of the gardens, of three natural areas in the immediate region. We visited one of these, Puckeys Estate Nature Reserve, on the coast well within Wollongong just 5km to the north-east of the gardens at the edge of suburb of Fairy Meadow. (The other two, Mount Keira Summit Park and Korrongulla Wetland, are on our schedule for a future visit.) In the late 19th century an English
chemist called Courtenay, or Courtney, Puckey (really!) bought land here and
experimented with extracting edible salt from the water. His work didn't seriously effect the natural values however and after his death in 1944 the infrastructure crumbled into ruins. (While Courtenay doesn't have his own entry in the esteemed Australian Dictionary of Biography, two of his daughters do. Both Mary and Selina were pioneering doctors and hospital administrators.)
The reserve (as noted, it is managed by the botanic gardens rather than the NSW Parks Service, which is a little puzzling given its conservation values) is accessed by a 1.5k walking track, including a board walk and bridge over the lagoon.
The beginning of the walk, looking ahead to the bridge; the sea is just to the right. |
Looking across to the mouth of the lagoon (currently closed, as is regularly the case with many of these coastal lagoons) from the same vantage point as the previous one. |
The mangroves fringing the lagoon are just one of the significant habitats protected here. |
Another is this Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest, dominated by Swamp Oak Casuarina glauca and Swamp Paperbark Melaleuca ericifolia which are immersed in water for much of their existence. |
Silkpod Vine (or Monkey Rope) Parsonsia straminea along the walking track. |
Edge of the saltmarsh between the lagoon and the walking track. |
Coastal (or littoral) rainforest remnant in the shelter of the dunes. |
Path through the dunes from the main walking track to the beach. |
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo Zanda funerea in a banksia by the track at Puckeys Estate. |
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4 comments:
Thanks, Ian. A lovely spread of photos to do justice to the many and varied plantings in the Wollongong Botanic Gardens! I agree, it's worth visiting more than once and though I haven't been to Puckeys Estate Nature Reserve I also recommend Mount Keira Summit Park. It's just so lush and different from our local vegetation.
Thanks for this Brigitta. We do look forward to exploring both Mount Keira and Korrongulla Wetland next time we're there, and I'll report accordingly.
Thanks for an excellent report that further encourages me to get down there, soon. I’m constantly reminded how interesting, attractive and local the Wollongong area is, and yet … only been there once in my life!
Thanks Julian, mission accomplished then! Yes, the area's got a lot going for it. We all have blind spots like that - mine is Newcastle.
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