Gariwerd/Grampians National Park; a range of flowers

[See notice at end re resumption of posts]

In my most recent post, I introduced the wonderful Gariwerd (or Grampians) National Park in western Victoria, one of our favourites. There wasn't room in one post to do it justice, so I left most of the flower photos to this second instalment. Accordingly this is simply a celebration of some of the wildflowers we enjoyed there in a couple of spring visits - one in the dry September of 2019, just before La Niña began to drench Australia and COVID changed everything, and the other only a few weeks ago in the very wet October of 2022. It's really just an annotated photo gallery. For the most part you'll be able to tell which photos were from which trip - the most recent ones tend to be in very dull light and often with raindrops still on the flowers!

In the last post I introduced some plants that are endemic to Gariwerd, but many of those that follow are quite widespread. However the ranges are particularly rich in spring flowers and worth celebrating for that, so quite of lot of flowers follow! There are also some species here that are only found in western Victoria. There's no particular rationale for the order in which the photos appear, though I have kept members of the same plant families together. Let's start with some wattles, and why not?

Spike Wattle Acacia oxycedrus growing among the rocks near Boroka Lookout,
above and below.

The wicked thorns and flowers in (much more benign) spikes make this wattle
very distinctive. It grows in heathy dry forest along the coast and hinterlands
of south-eastern Australia.

Myrtle Wattle A. myrtifolia grows in near-coastal areas (at its closest point Gariwerd is
only 85k from the sea) from south-western Australia all the way to south-east Queensland.

Golden Wattle A. pycnantha which, as I'm sure you're aware (if you're Australian at least),
is our national floral emblem. It does occur in six of the eight states and territories,
being only absent from Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Wirilda Acacia retinodes, which can produce the very pale flowers at almost any
time of year (here in September) but peaks in summer. The long slender single-veined
phyllodes have a distinctive bluish tinge.

The heaths are prominent (as they are in the understorey of many south-eastern drier forests and coastal heathlands). I've just used 'heath' in two different senses in that sentence. The Australian plants related to the northern hemisphere family Ericaceae were long put into their own family Epacridaceae, but as is the wont of modern botanical taxonomy it has been subsumed into a huge and somewhat amorphous enlarged Ericaceae. (I've quietly lamented the loss of nuance in this trend, and won't do so again here.) The other use of 'heath' is as a habitat descriptor, referring to an understorey or near-treeless expanse of hard-leaved shrubs growing in low-nutrient wet or dry sandy soils. (Members of the heath family are often prominent in such habitats.)

Here are three heath species which are commonly found in Gariwerd, the first of which is the Victorian floral emblem (though it also grows in South Australia, south-eastern NSW and throughout Tasmania).

Common Heath Epacris impressa (above and below) ranges in colour from
deep red to pale pink to white. Here are a couple of variants. It is very (and
pleasingly) common throughout Gariwerd and well beyond.

Pine Heath Astroloma pinifolium really does have very pine-like foliage, as well as
unusual green-tipped yellow flowers.

Golden Heath Styphelia adscendens is another striking heath species, with long
stamens and furry rolled-back petals. Like many other species featured here
it is also found well beyond the ranges of Gariwerd.

Members of the Proteaceae family are prominent here, as pretty much everywhere in Australia. Last time we met the lovely Flame Grevillea, which is restricted to Gariwerd, and the Rock Banksia, which is found only here and on Mornington Peninsula. Here are a couple of other family members.

Mountain Grevillea G. alpina, a very attractive, widespread and variable species found in drier
forests of Victoria and south-eastern NSW (including the ACT). At times it's been suggested
that more than one species is involved, which seems intuitively plausible,
but it seems the genetics doesn't support the idea.

Holly Grevillea G. aquifolium, a striking species found mostly in western Victoria, and
to a lesser extent in south-eastern South Australia.

Beaked Hakea (or Turkey-gobbler) H. rostrata (all three names come from the
distinctively shaped large woody fruit). Found from central Victoria
to well into South Australia.

Victorian Smokebush Conospermum mitchellii. Of 52 named species of smokebush,
only eight are found outside of WA; this one is limited to western Victoria, especially
Gariwerd. Many of the WA species have blue-grey flowers which, en masse, look
like smoke haze from a distance, but this one is gleaming white.

Pea plants are of course everywhere, and last time I featured the Gariwerd endemic Grampians Parrot-Pea. Here are three other, more widespread peas of Gariwerd.

Showy Parrot-Pea Dillwynia sericea, found from Kangaroo Island to the far
north of NSW. I don't get bored with it though...

Rough Bush-Pea Pultenea scabra, a familiar pea on the south-eastern mainland,
with very distinctive leaves.

Spreading Eutaxia E. microphylla, also found far beyond Gariwerd.

Running Postman Kennedia prostrata, always a pleasure to encounter, which can
be done virtually right across southern Australia.

In a prolonged wet period like this one sundews are found almost everywhere, but in other times they are restricted to perennially damp situations, where they trap and digest insects with their sticky-haired leaves baited with sugary droplets, to compensate for low nutrient soils. 

Tall Sundew Drosera auriculata; its long-haired leaves can be seen at the bottom
of the picture. The flower is held high above above them to prevent accidental
digestion of the pollinators!

Scented Sundew Drosera whittakeri, whose deathtrap leaves are all lying
on the ground. No flowers in this photo, but the leaves are beautiful in themselves.

From here until the last bundle of offerings, each family is represented by just one species.

Rough Star-hair Astrotricha ledifolia (Family Araliaceae), a widespread family which
includes ivy and ginseng. A very distinctive shrub with hairy flower stems, found in
scattered locations across Victoria.

Pale Grass-Lily Caesia parviflora, a widespread and attractive little lily.

By contrast with some previous widespread species, this glorious Blue Tinsel-Lily
Calectasia intermedia is found only from Gariwerd west to the SA border, and in adjacent
areas of that state. Moroever it is the only Calectasia - and indeed the only member of the family
Dasypogonaceae - found outside of Western Australia.

Snow Myrtle Calytrix alpestris, another lovely plant, especially in flower, has a
similar (though slightly wider) distribution to the Calectasia, in heathlands of
western Victoria and adjacent South Australia.

Bundled Guinea Flower Hibbertia fasciculata is probably the most conspicuous
of the several species of guinea flower in Gariwerd, with dense furry cylindrical
leaves up the often erect stem. Family Dillenaceae.

Wedge-leaf Hop Bush Dodonea cuneata has very inconspicuous little
green flowers but beautiful big glossy red winged fruits.

Large-leaf Ray Flower Cyphanthera anthocercidea is a rare and Endangered species, found
only in Gariwerd and nearby Mount Arapiles, and on the other side of the state in a few
localities in Gippsland. It is in the Solanaceae family, with tomatoes, potatoes and tobacco,
plus quite a few Australian species.

Love Creeper Comesperma volubile, a very pretty climber in the family Polygalaceae.
Unlike the previous species this one has a huge range across near-coastal southern
Australia from Brisbane to Tasmania to north of Perth.

Shrubby Velvet Bush Lasiopetalum macrophyllum Family Malvaceae (though until fairly
recently it was in the much smaller family Sterculiaceae, and who knows what is yet to
come?). In Victoria it is found mostly in the far east, except for a few populations
in Gariwerd - including this one at Golton Gorge.

Bendigo or Fairy Waxflower Philotheca (formerly Eriostemon) verrucosa, another beautiful
snowy white flower. Found in Victoria mostly in Gariwerd and the central Goldfields, and
in Tasmania, plus outliers in the Mount Lofty Ranges. Family Rutaceae (like citruses and boronias).

Round-leaf Mintbush Prostanthera rotundifolia, a profusely flowering beauty
found in rocky areas throughout south-eastern Australia.

Dusty Miller Spyridium parvifolium at Boroka Lookout.
The 'dusty' pale leaves surrounding the inconspicuous flowers draw attention
to them. I like to think this gives us an indication of how petals originally developed.

Pink Bells Tetratheca ciliata, found everywhere in Gariwerd and a constant source of pleasure.
Its flowers are bigger than those of other Tetratheca I know. Tetratheca's family Tremandraceae
has been subsumed into the bigger and ancient Gondwanan family Eleocarpaceae, following
a common pattern in botanical taxonomy in recent times.

Fairy's Apron Utricularia dichotoma. These tiny flowers grow in wet areas (this one
was part of a colony growing in thick moss on a rock sheet). They prey on very small
organisms in the water beneath them, by means of little 'bladders' which 'suck' in water
and tiny organisms.

Grass Tree Xanthorrhoea australis; this is a familiar sight in many places (though I never
tire of them) but I was intrigued by the oddly chopped-off flower spike, present on
several of these plants in the area near Mount Zero in the north.

And finally, those who know me will not be at all surprised that I'm going to end this Gariwerd floral odyssey with a selection of the orchids we saw. Some are common and widespread, others not nearly so much, but I enjoy them all every time; I hope you do too!

Waxlip Orchid (or Parson-in-the-Pulpit) Glossodia major; this orchid
is familiar to anyone who goes into the south-east Australian bush in spring,
but I can never ignore it! On both our most recent visits to Gariwerd we saw these in swathes.

Leopard Orchid Diuris pardina, another very common Gariwerd orchid,
and also widespread in south-eastern Australia.

Trim Greenhood Diplodium (or Pterostylis) concinum; for more on the fascinating
greenhoods, see my recent post on them here. This one has a similar broad
south-eastern distribution to the last two species.

Emerald-Lip Greenhood Bunochilus (or Pterostylis) smaragdynus, here coming to the
very end of its flowering. It was the only plant we found, and only the top couple of flowers
are still fairly fresh; the lower ones have swollen ovaries and shrivelled flowers, having
been fertilised.

Gnat Orchid Cyrtostylis reniformis, yet another species widespread in the south-east but,
despite growing in colonies, it's not always easy to see in the shady situations where it often grows.

Rabbit Ears Thelymitra antennifera; the odd name refers to the red-brown erect lobes
on the column in the middle of the flower. It's one of the sun orchids, but is a bit more
willing to open on cloudy days than many others in the group.
A widespread orchid across southern Australia, but not as far north as NSW.

Pygmy Caladenia, or Tiny Fingers, Caladenia pusilla, a very small finger orchid indeed;
it is found scattered across south-eastern Australia, but is rarely apparently common.
However its diminutive size and similarity to other, much commoner, caladenias
probably confuses the situation. We only found this one, up near Mount Zero.

And to finish, a beautiful spider orchid which is giving me considerable angst
regarding its identity. I enquired on a very knowledgeable orchid facebook
group, where I was assured by a couple of authorities that it is the Critically
Endangered Dainty Spider Orchid Caladenia ampla. I'd have no argument with that,
and it certainly looks like it, but the Flora of Victoria tells me that while it
grows nearby it doesn't actually live in Gariwerd itself. If anyone reading this
can advise me of what I'm missing here I'd be very grateful indeed!

And that might just about do us on some of the fabulous flowers of this fabulous park; it's turned out to be a longer post than even I'd anticipated! If you've gone the full journey with me I'm very grateful, and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. And it's worth bearing in mind that while spring is clearly peak wildflower season there, any time of year it's a great destination, including for flowers. Please do drop by when you can, you won't regret it.

I'M TAKING A SHORT BREAK FROM BLOGGING UNTIL JANUARY.
I'LL NOTIFY YOU, AS USUAL, WHEN THE NEXT ONE GOES UP;
SEE BELOW IF YOU'RE NOT ON MY NOTIFICATIONS LIST AND WOULD LIKE TO BE.

 

I love to receive your comments and in future will be notifying you personally by email when a new posting appears, if you'd like me to. All current subscribers have been added to this mailing list and have already been contacted. This will mean one email every three weeks at the current rate of posting. I promise never to use the list for any other purpose and will never share it.
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Gariwerd/Grampians National Park; one of the best

One of the most superb - and most-visited - national parks in Australia rises from the western plains of Victoria. Gariwerd was renamed the Grampians after the Scottish range by the now infamous surveyor/explorer Thomas Mitchell in 1836, but now both names are used together. In the 1990s a Victorian premier, in an act of astonishing political perversity, abolished the original Indigenous names that had been jointly reinstated but sense and decency has since apparently been restored in this matter.

The central section of Gariwerd from the east, some 25km away. The range (or series
of ranges) is 90km long from north to south, and half that at its widest point,
covering an impressive 167,000 hectares, though astonishingly it wasn't declared
national park until 1984. It is surrounded by farmland, formerly woodland.

Gariwerd lies approximately at the end of the red arrow in the
south-east corner of the map.

A low-res map of the park, courtesy of Parks Victoria. You'll probably need to
click on it to see it at all clearly. Halls Gap (HG) is in the middle of the eastern edge of the
range - look for the white on blue i (for Information). The main areas covered by the
photos are Mount Zero and Gulgum Manja Shelter in the far north; Heatherlie Quarry
about halfway between HG and Mount Zero; Boroka Lookout, just north-west
of HG; Balconies, west of HG; Victoria Valley, south-west of HG.

There are roads through the park but it is not fragmented by them and much of the park is only accessible by foot. Accordingly, most visitors see only a tiny area of the park, though this is still pretty satisfactory. My guess is that most visitors never leave the small area around Hall's Gap, a busy village in the centre of the eastern edge of the range; from here there are walks along the delightful Stoney Creek and a short circular drive to other creek and waterfall walks.

 

Stoney Creek, a delightful short walk from the tourist hub of Hall's Gap.

These sheltered walks along ferny stream lines, often leading to a waterfall, are probably the most popular in the park (though not least because most of them are close to Hall's Gap).

Another scene on Stoney Creek; this is near the pool known as Venus' Bath. These awfully
twee names make me wince, but they are rife in areas favoured by 19th and early 20th
century tourists. And our forebears were dedicated and determined tourists!

People were coming to the Grampians (as they were then universally known in English) from Melbourne from the middle of the 19th century, taking advantage of the trains to Stawell in particular. In 1868, Thomas' Guide for Excursionists from Melbourne was published to promote the Grampians. The return rail fare from Melbourne was £5. "To him who likes to escape a while from the conventionalities and to be brought for a while face-face with nature in her solemn grand and eternal beauty, we say: Try the Grampians" Unfortunately he then went on to recommend the pleasures of shooting the wallabies (probably the Brush-tailed Rock-Wallaby, now Critically Endangered in Victoria)...

In addition the ranges supported a logging industry, a hugely destructive wattle bark industry (for tannins for leather-tanning), gold mining, stone quarrying and stock grazing. Not only was this environmentally detrimental, but had (as everywhere) catastrophic imlications for the Djab Wurrung and Jardwardjali people, whose descendants help manage the park today. However their stories are not mine to tell, and I don't have the right or ability to do so.

Gulgum Manja art site, in the far north of the park. This is a well-publicised site,
protected by a mesh and interpreted. There are several such sites in the areas (as well,
I imagine, as many others not advertised); more information on them can be found at
Brambuk Cultural Centre in Hall's Gap.

Instead here are a few more scenes from walks along the stream lines, or to waterfalls. They also feature some of the magnificent rock formations which are such a feature of the park. Most of the geology features sediments - sandstones etc - which were laid down during the Devonian, between 415 and 425 million years ago, by rivers carrying material from higher ground into shallow estuaries. (There are also some younger granites, but not in the areas most people visit.)

Golton Gorge, off the road north to Mount Zero. Another easy pleasant
walk to where the water slides over the rocks via a small fall into a pool.

Turret Falls, in the Wonderland area (see previous comments on
twee 19th century names), in the Hall's Gap area. This photo, and the couple of
Stoney Creek earlier,  were taken in September 2019 after prolonged drought,
just before the current series of inundating La Niñas began.

The next two were taken in early October 2022 after a wet week, but before the devastating rains of the past week (I am writing on 27 October 2022) which have submerged so much of New South Wales and northern Victoria. The results at the waterfalls were spectacular (and I can't imagine what they look like now).

Mackenzie Falls, even from way above it was truly awesome
(and I don't use that word lightly).

Silverband Falls - and as you can see from the spots on the lens it was still
raining. The big eucalypt on the left had been washed off the hillside opposite,
and the roar of the water was overwhelming.

Away from the wet gullies in the sheltered central eastern ranges near Hall's Gap, dry eucalypt forest with a heathy understorey is more the norm.

The track into Heatherlie Quarry where the flowering in spring is spectacular.

There are some truly grand views to be had at a couple of justifiably well-known lookouts (both of which can be pretty good for flowers too). Boroka Lookout is right above Hall's Gap (600 metres above it in fact) though it's reached by a 15km drive west along Mount Victory Road, then north a little to the well-marked lookout. The views west and south are superb.

South from Goroka Lookout. The sandstone layers in the foreground and the tilted planes of
the Wonderland Range behind must delight a geologist's eyes; they certainly do mine.
Far beyond is the Serra Range. To the left is Lake Bellfield, created by a dam on Fyans Creek
in 1966 to provide water (and recreation) for Hall's Gap, which is to the left of the photo.

The other famed vistas are from Reed's Lookout and along the adjacent one kilometre track to the Balconies (formerly widely known as the Jaws of Death, which was apparently deemed to require some tweaking for PR purposes, perhaps understandably). The carpark is by the Mount Victory Road, not far past the Boroka Lookout turnoff.

Looking south into the Glenelg River headwaters valley (generally referred to as
Victoria Valley), with Moora Moora Reservoir in the distance. It was planned in
the 1880s but only completed in 1934, to divert water to Horsham - which I have to
say seems a long way in the wrong direction, way back over our left shoulder
as we're looking at it!

Moora Moora Reservoir (while we're talking about it), which is a lovely tranquil
place now, though in the 1890s there were up to 80 people in a small village here
logging ancient River Red Gums for railway sleepers. It's worth recalling too that
prior to the dam being built it was a doubtless rich and fascinating wetland.
Across the water the effects of bushfires can be seen in the trees; since 2006 there have
been three major fires in Gariwerd which have together burnt some 85% of the park.
The effects can be seen everywhere.

Back to Reeds Lookout, from where the track to the Balconies passes through interesting areas of sheet sandstone with little mossy gardens, and with views to the north.

 

Moss bed on the rocks along the Balconies walking track, with Fairies' Aprons
Utrichularia dichotoma and sundews Drosera spp.

Looking north across the sandstone sheets to Lake Wartook in a valley of the Mount
Difficult Range. The park seems to have more than its share of reservoirs, though to
be fair they were all built before its late gazettal (but see below). It was another wetland,
which attracted pastoralists and the Cobb and Co. coaches for watering stock.
The first dam wall was built here in 1887, but was raised significantly in 1997 - ie well
after the park's gazettal. The water is released to the Mackenzie River, and then channelled
to the Wimmera River to provide Horsham's water supply.

About 30 years ago you were able - indeed encouraged! - to clamber onto the lower 'balcony', high above the valley floor. Given that fact that the sandstone is gradually eroding away, this seems crazy now and there is fencing and signs in an attempt to deter people - but some people are hard to protect... I've even seen a photo from the 1940s of a party of 23 people posing on it, who collectively must have weighed close to two tonnes; that could have ended very badly indeed.

 

The Balconies from the newish adjacent lookout. The tree in the foreground partly
obscures the lower shelf, so you can't really see how flimsy it looks.

 While we're admiring sandstone, here are a few more Gariwerd sandstone scenes to admire.

 

The view looking roughly north-east from Mount Zero in the far north of the park.

Also in the far north, close to Mount Zero, is the Gulgum Manja art site (in an area also referred
to as Hollow Mountain). There is a photo of some of the art above, but this is its setting.

Along Rose's Gap Road, driving back from Mount Zero to Hall's Gap.
I just had to stop and photograph these grand cliffs over the trees.

As mentioned earlier, it is impossible not to be aware of the impact of fires in the past couple of decades, almost wherever you go in Gariwerd. 

Epicormic buds beginning the tree's recovery along the Mount Victory Road. I think this
was actually a management burn, being very recent and limited in area along the road.

The north end of the park burned very severely in January 2014 and as far as I know that
was the last time, though I'm having trouble getting information on the third fire mentioned
above. This photo was taken in early September 2019, and the fact that it had been very
dry for some time explains the apparently slow recovery. The flowering was still
impressive however.

This is the same general area (not the same scene) three years later, in October 2022.
Recovery is progressing well and the flowering this year was wonderful after three wet years.

I keep teasing you with mention of flowering without really producing any. That's because there is far too much to squeeze into this post, and I'll be focussing on the flowers next time. However as an appetiser here are three of the 20 species found nowhere but Gariwerd, plus another which has only one other outlying population.

Grampians Thryptomene T. calycina. This lovely shrub is widespread in the park (but nowhere else) flowering right  through winter and spring.

Flame Grevillea G. dimorpha is widespread, but not abundant, but can't be missed when in flower,
which also happens from late autumn to spring. I have read that it also occurs in the Pyrenees (!)
near Ararat to the east, but the Flora of Victoria confirms that it's restricted to Gariwerd.

Grampians Parrot-Pea Dillwynia oreodoxa is a Gariwerd endemic of rocky areas.

Rock Banksia B. saxicola, here on Mount William on a misty day, is otherwise
found only at Wilsons Promontery on the coast on the other side of Melbourne.
It is not common, found only in some mountainside sites.

If you're into wildflowers, come back in a fortnight - they're too good to have to wait three weeks for - when I'll present a range of lovely Gariwerd flora. If this post hasn't persuaded you to go there (or go back there) sometime soon, I'm hoping that the flowers can clinch it! Meantime, stay dry if you can, and enjoy the final weeks of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER

 

I love to receive your comments and in future will be notifying you personally by email when a new posting appears, if you'd like me to. All current subscribers have been added to this mailing list and have already been contacted. This will mean one email every three weeks at the current rate of posting. I promise never to use the list for any other purpose and will never share it.
Should you wish to be added to it, just send me an email at calochilus51@internode.on.net. You can ask to be removed from the list at any time,or could simply mark an email as Spam, so you won't see future ones.