Six walkers enjoyed the fine weather and a good display of wildflowers in the Reef Hills. It has been a good year for this area, and particularly for wattles.
Starting from the Picnic Area, which is a concentrated centre for flowers, we walked up Tower road towards the Quarry before turning right down a bush track and viewing quite a deep mine shaft before meeting the Rifle Range road and then the Wattle road. This road has a very good display of purple flowered Rough Mint-bushes, particularly near a low section of the track. We turned left here and walked the straight road to the hill where the fire-watch tower used to be. Down the hill to the Tower road and left then right on a bush track which has a line of mines including “The Lion” and leads down to “Wrangler’s Gully”, and the alluvial diggings, uphill from here to the Quarry and back to the cars. We were lucky to find a few Flying duck orchids flowering.
They are very small – about 2 cm, but quite spectacular. Also, after lunch, we drove to Baines road to see a small display of Tiger Orchids.
Starting from the Picnic Area, which is a concentrated centre for flowers, we walked up Tower road towards the Quarry before turning right down a bush track and viewing quite a deep mine shaft before meeting the Rifle Range road and then the Wattle road. This road has a very good display of purple flowered Rough Mint-bushes, particularly near a low section of the track. We turned left here and walked the straight road to the hill where the fire-watch tower used to be. Down the hill to the Tower road and left then right on a bush track which has a line of mines including “The Lion” and leads down to “Wrangler’s Gully”, and the alluvial diggings, uphill from here to the Quarry and back to the cars. We were lucky to find a few Flying duck orchids flowering.
They are very small – about 2 cm, but quite spectacular. Also, after lunch, we drove to Baines road to see a small display of Tiger Orchids.
There are no more walks this year. Easy walks will start again in April.
Thank you for your work and help over the year, and have a good Christmas,
Vaughan Cowan
Thank you for your work and help over the year, and have a good Christmas,
Vaughan Cowan
