Journal of the Australian Native Plants Society Canberra region (Inc)
The 3-day Murramarang National Park Walk in Winter
By Robin & Mike Shihoff
On the 9th of May, 11 of us Canberrans broke out of our ACT routines to do an agreed plant trip down to the South Coast and see if anything was in flower, of special interest or new to us. Some of the members are part of a Wednesday Walkers Light group, priding themselves on the brevity of the excursions, light on distance, exertion, gravity and sometimes light on ability of labelling the plants. Focus is on laughter and fun in combination with botany and field nature observations and a light lunch. Against us was the short and further shortening daylight hours, potential for rain and the anticipated cold.
Over an excellent lunch at the Eurobodalla Botanical Gardens, just south of Batemans Bay we reminded ourselves and discussed that we were in for some sand, sandstone and rainforest in the broad and long National Park of this region. On the well-kept Gardens path we had a brief walk where we had a look at local plants, representative of the huge Eurobodalla Shire.
Luckily for us, a lot of the plants were labelled and reminded us of the fact that most of us were out of our botanical comfort zones! — like the Diploglottus Native Tamarind and the massive Eucalypts like the Corymbia maculosa Spotted Gum sign-posted as their biggest local gum in the gardens despite heavy competition from Brownbarrels, Woollybutts and others over 30 metres tall.
After a half-hour northern drive we retreated to our cabins at the NRMA campgrounds at the beachside Murramarang National Park border. After the usual 5 o’clock drinks and briefing, a flexible plan was proposed and sketched.
We met next morning and returned towards the highway for 5 kms, taking an acute left-hand turn into the unsealed dirt road towards North Head and Beach.
Towering Eucalyptus saligna Sydney blue gum, E fastigata Gunbarrel gums and possibly E. cypellocarpus Monkey Gum with very tall possibly 40m Corymbia maculosa made the short but scenic drive spectacular.
Stopping shortly after the National Parks billboard the pleasant local botanical surprises started!
We were able to see and label many more plants than we expected. Many were now showing off their fruit.This is in contrast to our usual flower smorgasbord of buds and flowers in our spring tours.
The first unusual one confidently identified was Psychtria loniceroides dangling its semitranslucent drupe and a small but spiny bright red local Solanum stelligerum Devils Thorn. Then a native olive, distorted by a wasp attack inducing galls stressed us so we then drove the 5km to North Beach to a Lookout over the beach.
Different species of Casuarinas had us again busy with our books and magnification using our photographs to enlarge the tiny serrations responsible for photosynthesis in this interesting Family with multiple genera present.
We descended to the beach and traversed it on the soft sinking sands, climbing up the stairs of the southern side of the beach.
This was the beginning of the three-day walk south to Maloney‘s Beach done by many back-packing individuals and groups using the New National Park track and sleeping and camping facilities.
We then climbed the local trig north of the campgrounds continuing northwards until botanical and physical exhaustion.
The next day we drove and explored the closer Myrtle Beach in a more direct line south to our accommodation.
Now we were driving through alleyways and galleries of much shorter stunted Gum trees (now-mostly 10–20 m) and rainforest vines attempting competition for sunlit rainforest vines Marsdenia (Leichardtia now?) Cissus successfully covering the eucalypts and all in some of the deeper gullies.
Myrtle Beach, with its multiple geological levels and caverns offered a succulent very green Rhagodia candolleana background to a deep hidden cavern entrance.
On this beach one of our group who had professional knowledge of the geological forms and an earlier professional understanding ,was able to show us the outlines boundaries of the geological timelines, rock forms as well as some interesting evidence of geological earlier events. This of course related to some of the botany niches we were seeing.
This bonus geology was later further entertainingly confirmed and expanded by a Wollongong University lecturer geologist. He commented more on the shales and rock platforms further south towards the visible yellow rocks forming islands in the sea. We were now in a campus teaching area! We fled before being examined and ascended the numerous stairs and diminutive Backhousia myrtifolia (hence Myrtle) and then explored the next beach.
On Dark Beach we pointed out to a happy family group that they had just been snorkelling below a huge male sea lion sitting on the rock platform above them in the water.
The persisting fine weather enabled the taking of many fine scenic sea coast photographs and sketches and some time to confirm names for some less common plants like Myrsine howittiana, Muttonwood, Notelea venosa longifolia without the generous guiding by our Canberra group horticulturalists, botanists and professionals to species and subspecies!
As our post lunch excursion was again testing our physical stamina and abilities, we walked along a more level elevated track coming across again some unusual new things like flowering Synoum glandulosum with fruit and flowers. Patersonia glabra?which we would have expected much later in spring and an unusually standout eucalyptus parasite Amyema cambagei? on a Eucalyptus robusta.
These tracks following and at times-paralleling the coastline had a canopy of ‘sorted’, sub divisioned Eucalyptus trees — each-staying in their geologically determined patch. A wonderful form of twisted and lower form of Carymbia maculosa, Eucalyptus, Robusta, globoidia, botriodes twisted to compete for the sky but staying low to avoid the Southerlies vicious squalls.
Some of these lower eucalypts were showing epiphytic orchids but no flowers yet to photograph. Beneath and in many patches, was a well-kept lawn appearance, patches of Lepidosperma laterale in flower and Lomandra obliqua. These patches shone a bright green, like Irish meadows in the afternoon light.
Without binoculars we argued about a distant penguin which later turned out to be a pied cormorant and then a ‘seal’ which turned out to be a sea lion.
We ourselves at that time were being closely observed by 2 sea eagles in several low flyovers — ironic! as some of us had been labelled as ’the usual suspects’ in earlier botanical jaunts.
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