The House(s) of Fran_mart

This post follows on from that covering the ANPS expedition to Iron Pot TSR .  It is the latest element of our 'Visit every  town in NSW' project.  Perhaps I should give it an acronym of VETIN - or does that sound too like a Russian politician? Whatever.  After leaving the TSR we rolled down the hill and into Berridale.  To most people this is simply a little village to hurtle through on the way to the fleshpots of Jindabyne, Thredbo and Perisher.  It appeared that most of the town was modern buildings of modest proportions servicing the tourist-service industries along the main drag.  There were a few older houses - check the stonework and veranda roof on this one.  As well as the war memorials (see below) this was a nice way to remember a friend and helper.  Thanks to a tip off from the site created by Michael Southwell-Keely I knew there was a memorial to a resident who had died in Burma during WW2.  This is a plaque at the...

I should point out this trip was to Iron Pot TSR (#34) just out of Berridale on the Jindabyne Rd.  It was rather a long trip (about 340km round trip) from Carwoola but even though we left early on, getting some work on our "town project" completed, it was a good outing. After leaving Cooma we soon entered the granite country  in which most of the eucalypts appeared to be dead, or at least extremely unwell.  At first glance this looked like fire damage but there was no evidence of burning on fence posts and other species appeared OK.  It seems that die-back is the issue, with a little epicormic growth suggesting a few trees are recovering. Into the TSR and I will begin with the Fabaceae - the BEAN (or possibly Vetch -as the genus is now Vicia not Faba ) family.  The first representative was   Mirbelia oxylobioides .  This was in profusion in some places as reflected in this habitat shot. Also easy to spot was this lurid  Oxylobi...

The more interesting of our local papers i ncluded an article about Open Gardens in the area this weekend. Two of these were near Monga National Park on the far side of Braidwood and read as though they would be interesting.  Cutting to the chase, they were both excellent. The first garden was a bare paddock, with some outcrops of granite and a few residual large trees, when the current owner acquired it in 2007.   This shot, from low down on the block, possibly gives an impression. This is one of the big trees.  It is a Ribbon Gum ( Eucalyptus viminalis ) which I am used to seeing in forested gullies where they grow tall and straight rather than spreading as in this case.   I suspect it was a big tree when the area was cleared.  As with many eucalypts they drop branches occasionally.  A keen eyed reader may note the wombat burrows between the rock and the fallen branches.  The owner had put a sign up saying "No entry Wombat holes". ...