Rain forest foray 2
My friend Janine had pointed out that the Lillipilli trees in the rainforest off Dowell Creek were fruiting and might be attracting some fruit-eating birds. She had usually got to this site by boat, but it looked as though an assault by Pajero might be possible.
This first map shows the eBird hotspots and my personal locations in the general area. The target spot is the one marked 2. The dashed red line shows Wallagaraugh and Fairhaven roads (accessed from the Princes Highway). The green dashed line is Fern Gully track which runs off Fairhaven Rd Finally the blue dashes show where I walked after parking the car at point 1. It took me just over an hour to get there.
If anyone else wants to try this, here are some details, Distances are from Google Maps, which matched quite closely with my odometer'
The drive in was enhanced by seeing a couple of Lyrebirds sprint across the road, and several Red-necked Wallabies go in front of me.
This is the track of my walk.
I didn't have an internet connection in this area but the road to the North looked a bit non-existent where I parked the car, while the one I was on looked fine.
I had to go through about 50m of forest to get into this open area, There were a few Grey Teal, Chestnut Teal, Pacific Black Duck and a White-faced Heron on the water
In this snip from Google Earth I got in to the open area at Y and walked to a closed gate at X (I think the position of the car is about at the end of the word 'Track'). As I didn't have this snip I couldn't tell where the rainforest started but it looked quite a distance off. As there were a couple of other spots I wanted to look at on the way home I decided that I had proved the idea of driving in and turned back.
Of course it is clear from that image that I was at most 200m from the start of the forest. I now know for next time.
As I walked back up the track I noticed a lot of Casuarina nuts on the ground. I then noticed this collection of well chewed nuts. I suspect that Glossy Black-Cockatoos have been dining in the area.
Unfortunately they weren't there on this day. Here is my birdlist for this part of the outing.
To my surprise another car came along. It was one of the guys from the Southern Ark project out checking their fox-baiting sites. He offered me a lift back to the car which I took and we chatted about the nature of the roads in the area (there are several on maps that are now overgrown) and the project. Very interesting guy. ( I initially said "Very good guy" which was also true, but as pointed out to me it sounds like Ole Orange Bonce and thus had to be changed.)
Fern Gully Track was easily traversable by the Pajero. I didn't use 4 wheel drive at all although the traction control did kick in a couple of times. The ruts could have caused a small issue but were able to be straddled quite easily. I suspect the Jetta would not have enjoyed this, but a Forester would have handled it OK. The guys Landcruiser also handled it OK.
As I drove in I noticed some water not far from the road so on the way out I went to see if it was accessible/visible. That was a negative: it was completely surrounded by Melaleuca scrub. Checking my paper map it is Teal Creek.
Teal Creek crosses Fairhaven Road at the intersection with New Binns Rd. There is some rainforest in the Creek so I stopped (point 3 in the first map) to see what I could see. There were some magnificent big ribbon gums,
well populated by Bell Miners and several calling Lyrebirds. Some Rainbow Lorikeets flew over and I heard a Red Wattlebird. The creek itself was dense vegetation with fallen trees making anythought of going for a wander fade away.
On the way out I stopped at the Johnson Bidge over the Wallagaraugh River (point 4 in the first map). Some eucalypts here were in flower and attracted about 20 each of Red Wattlebirds, Bell Miners and Rainbow Lorikeets. Rather noisy!
This first map shows the eBird hotspots and my personal locations in the general area. The target spot is the one marked 2. The dashed red line shows Wallagaraugh and Fairhaven roads (accessed from the Princes Highway). The green dashed line is Fern Gully track which runs off Fairhaven Rd Finally the blue dashes show where I walked after parking the car at point 1. It took me just over an hour to get there.
- Turn off Princes Highway on to Wallagraugh Rd.
- Follow that for 6.7 kms to junction with Pieses Rd, turn left to stay on Wallagaraugh Rd.
- After about 200m turn Right to cross the Wallagaraugh River
- After 4,5 kms turn Right into Fairhaven Rd,
- After 7,5km turn left into Fern Gully Rd
The drive in was enhanced by seeing a couple of Lyrebirds sprint across the road, and several Red-necked Wallabies go in front of me.
This is the track of my walk.
To my surprise another car came along. It was one of the guys from the Southern Ark project out checking their fox-baiting sites. He offered me a lift back to the car which I took and we chatted about the nature of the roads in the area (there are several on maps that are now overgrown) and the project. Very interesting guy. ( I initially said "Very good guy" which was also true, but as pointed out to me it sounds like Ole Orange Bonce and thus had to be changed.)
Fern Gully Track was easily traversable by the Pajero. I didn't use 4 wheel drive at all although the traction control did kick in a couple of times. The ruts could have caused a small issue but were able to be straddled quite easily. I suspect the Jetta would not have enjoyed this, but a Forester would have handled it OK. The guys Landcruiser also handled it OK.
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