ANPS eventually gets to Monga NP

The word 'eventually' in the subject refers to the efforts of the road works 'industry' to completely block traffic flow on the Kings Highway.  The first victims of this were some of those coming from Canberra, but we all got several serves between Bungendore and Braidwood.  The effort just past the Warri Bridge has been going on for many months and must by now be a sacred site for the CFMEU; it has gone past "legacy project" towards becoming "heritage".

It was as forecast a cool day, with a temperature of about 7C at our first stop. I think the warmest reading I got all day - on the way home - was 12C.  Anyhow to business, mostly arranged sort of thematically.

The catalyst for the trip was the flowering of Correa lawrenciana, which was going very well.
At our first stop we found Acacia ulicifolia in flower.
A bit further up the road were several Banksia spinulosa (had we got on to a patch of sandstone?)
Then some Persoonia linearis which had flowers, buds and ....
.. fruits, all on the same plant!
Quite how I confuse Persoonia (correct ) and Pimelea (which I originally did for those images) is a worry as the only similarities are the first and last letters!

This is a grass flower, probably Entolasia sp.
There were several things in bud.  This first is Leucopogon lanceolata.
The second is Acacia, and I'll be bold and go for A. falciformis.
Podolobium ilicifolium
There were a couple of procreated species around as well.  These lurid mini-oranges were Solanum aviculare.
That was actually quite a tricky one to ID as our previous record in this area was of S, brownii which this was not.  Looking at an uncropped image I found a lobed leaf (boxed in red) ...
...  which makes it S. aviculare (in vernacular Kangaroo Apple).

It is pushing my ethics to have two grassy-type things in one post but this Gahnia sieberiana was rather spiffy.
Ferns were available in good numbers and diversity.  I think this is Asplenium flabellifolium.
Cyathea australis beside our first creek
And beside the road.
Gleichenia dicarpa
Very little in the way of insect life today.  An interesting lerp pattern on an Acacia leaf.
A double gall on another Acacia.  This looks very like the "oak apples" of my youth in the UK, which were formed by a Hymenopterid.
Although May was pretty dry around Carwoola, the watercourses in Monga still had some flow.  Looking at the level of the moss on this rock and the water suggests it has dropped a bit.
Flow in the Creek ...
.. and the Mongarlowe River.
Further evidence of moisture was the relatively diverse crop of fungi.  This first is obviously a bracket fungus.
I think this is Botellus obscurecoccineus.  Note underside in mirror.
This brown fungus was growing in a fallen tree trunk of some fair vintage.
The image below shows the underside of this fungus - the difference in colour is due to me not using a flash (which just gives glare when fired into a mirror) for the shot.
I do not apologise for three images of Eastern Yellow Robins!



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