A Drive to Dalton

Dalton Cemetery

After cancelling the week before, our walk in April turned out to be a beautiful autumn day. The Cemetery at Dalton had been mowed. Council seem to extend their mowing further each year, but we did manage to find and identify quite a few plants on the list.

 Amazingly, the dear little Goodenia hederacea managed to grow and flower below the mower blades, as well as several Parson’s bands Eriochilus cucullatus growing and flowering in the mowed area. Our botanist was absent so we had a couple of mystery plants which turned out to be Dillwynia sericea and, half identified by Jeanette, Daviesia genistifolia which Roger Farrow later identified with only a sprig and no flowers or seeds. There was also an old, very thickly leafed Kurrajong, Brachychiton sp, which I presume had been planted years ago.

We had a late morning tea at the Dalton picnic area having spent longer than expected at the Cemetery. New members were intrigued by the fossil rock exhibit, discovered at a basalt lava flow which dammed the Lachlan River near the Jerrawa Creek junction. This last slab was taken to Dalton and used as a step for Wheatley’s Store before being moved to the present site by the then Gunning Shire Council to better preserve it. It is now listed by National Parks and Wildlife Service as a Geological Heritage Site.