Dick Wettenhall’s new guide book takes visitors to the Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve off the beaten track to discover different parts of this fascinating place. Photo: Terry Melvin
By Dick Wettenhall
WHILE the The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve is well recognised for orchids and birds, visitors usually only look for these along the main tracks near the car parks. Most never get to explore the magnificent woodlands on the ridges, plateaus, creek valleys and lowland basins.
This guide takes you to these places where you will discover different worlds of nature’s creations. The trees are taller, the vegetation is denser and more diverse, the orchids and the fungi are healthier and rarer, the pollinators of the orchids are more active, and there is a greater abundance of native birds and animals.
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When you enter these woodlands, it is worth allocating time to sit in places where you can absorb the sounds of nature, see birds, animals and insects travelling through the bush, smell the flora and marvel at the sunlight filtering through the beautiful canopies of tall eucalypts, acacias, tree ferns and ancient grass trees.
Spending time in a quiet place deep in the forest also provides an opportunity to reflect on the history of the region. The vegetation is largely regenerated from remnant seeds after much of the original forest was decimated by the timber industry in the 19th Century. The original forest featured giant eucalypts over eighty metres tall and an understorey so dense that it was virtually impenetrable. |
The Guide to Orchid Paradise: The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve is on sale at Turn the Page bookshop in Cowes and at the Bunurong Environment Centre in Inverloch. You can also order direct from the author at [email protected]. You can meet the author and buy a signed copy at the Save Western Port Woodlands family day at the Grantville Hall on Sunday, November 24, 12.30-3.30pm. |
The forest was home for the traditional owners, the Yallock-Bulluk Bunurong Clan of the First Nation Peoples. In this place, the clansmen hunted kangaroos, possums, tree goannas and other fauna for food and skins to make cloaks, and harvested indigenous vegetables, wild berries, orchid tubers, and fungi for food. They also hunted lyrebirds to obtain their spectacular tail feathers for ceremonial dress, harvested large tree fungi for tinder and gathered leaves of selected eucalypts and grass tree stems for burning at funerals and other special ceremonies to generate smokes of spiritual significance.
Of more recent historical interest are the old vehicle tracks through the forest, some of which were made during the period of early European settlement. The tracks linked up with Dunbabbin Road, which was part of the Hurdy Gurdy Run where squatters established logging and farming businesses. The tracks were important for providing early settlers with access to the hill country to the east of The Gurdies. They also provided access to the Port of Grantville, where extracted timber and dairy produce were shipped to Melbourne.
Rare green striped leafy greenhood, Gurdies NCR. Photo: Dick Wettenhall
Many people visit nature reserves to see the beautiful scenery, woodland flora, and resident wildlife, without being aware of the beauty and intrigue of the miniature world that underpins forest life. This world is where microbes, insects, spiders, and other invertebrates coexist, sometimes in mutually beneficial relationships, but more often as enemies. Collectively, they are the engines of the forest that drive the reproduction of plants, the feeding of animals and the recycling of plant materials to feed new plants.
The descriptions of the flora, fauna and miniature world of orchids included in this book are intended to illustrate the delicately balanced life within individual forest habitats. The habitats that are unique to different regions of the reserve are highlighted in the chapters describing the individual tracks and trails.
Rather than only investigating the relatively contrived habitats along the mowed verges of the tracks, it is worth walking along animal trails through the bush, where you can observe delicate orchids growing in their natural habits and birds and animals moving through the bush.
The descriptions of the flora, fauna and miniature world of orchids included in this book are intended to illustrate the delicately balanced life within individual forest habitats. The habitats that are unique to different regions of the reserve are highlighted in the chapters describing the individual tracks and trails.
Rather than only investigating the relatively contrived habitats along the mowed verges of the tracks, it is worth walking along animal trails through the bush, where you can observe delicate orchids growing in their natural habits and birds and animals moving through the bush.
However, caution is needed once you move away from the tracks. Apart from the greater risk of encountering snakes, it is easy to become disoriented and even lost, particularly in areas with dense bush and sloping terrain. Carrying a compass and a water bottle is highly advisable if you intend to take these off-track walks!
Ancient grass trees on the Southern Plateau of the Gurdies NCR. Photo: Dick Wettenhall
The book focuses on the bush in the vicinity of the main walking tracks and trails. This covers only a small fraction of the Reserve. Even more fascinating wildlife can be found in the woodlands deep within the valleys between the main ridges. All parts of the Reserve can be explored by following the animal trails through the bush, except the southern slope of the Northern Ridge around the large sand mine. While negotiating the bush, care needs to be taken to avoiding trampling on orchids and other delicate ground plants and fungi.
A reasonable level of fitness is required to access these areas as many of the bush trails are overgrown or blocked by fallen trees, necessitating scrambling through thick bush to get around the blockages. But the effort is worthwhile, particularly visits to the spectacular rain forests in the Central Creek valley, and the distinct dry woodland forests in the Southern Basin and the main slope of the Central Ridge.
This is an edited extract from "The Guide to Orchid Paradise: The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve", by Dick Wettenhall.
A reasonable level of fitness is required to access these areas as many of the bush trails are overgrown or blocked by fallen trees, necessitating scrambling through thick bush to get around the blockages. But the effort is worthwhile, particularly visits to the spectacular rain forests in the Central Creek valley, and the distinct dry woodland forests in the Southern Basin and the main slope of the Central Ridge.
This is an edited extract from "The Guide to Orchid Paradise: The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve", by Dick Wettenhall.