PRESIDENT Gillian Baldwin e:gbaldwin60@hotmail.comp: 6332 1583

VICE PRESIDENT Marcia Bonhame: bondura@harboursat.com.aup: 6337 1117

SECRETARY Lyn Burgette: lburgett@bth.catholic.edu.aup: 6331 9170

TREASURER Joanna McLachlane: bandoola1@bigpond.comp: 6337 3810a: ‘Bandoola’, 1566 Orange Road Bathurst NSW 2795

PUBLICITY OFFICERS Nicky Coopere: nicolai.cooper@cma.nsw.gov.au

Rani Allibande: rani_alliband@hotmail.comp: 6331 8211

NEWSLETTER EDITOR Bev Wodrowe: oxley1885@ix.net.aup: 6337 5030

REGION COUNCIL DELEGATE Merle Thompsone: meleaps@bigpond.com

LIBRARIAN Fiona Johnson p: 6368 5965

PLANT STEWARDSSue Wakefield e: peckatoe@harboursat.com.aup: 6337 4853m: 0429 789 487

Fiona Johnsonp: 6368 5965

COMMITTEE MEMBERS Bruce Mulligane: bruce.mulligan@hotmail.comp: 6337 7360

Laney Cooperp: 6337 5569

Welcome to our April newsletter… APRIL IS GOING TO BE A BUSY MONTH. We have the Bathurst show from Friday 12th

April until Sunday 14th. Our APS group will have a stall again this year with lots of native flowers on show. We will also have a lucky draw for free APS membership. On 20th April we will be visiting the Rath’s home for our annual propagation day. If you haven’t attended before, the day is a good opportunity to find out good ways of propagating native cuttings and also to pick up free cutting material as we share what we bring. Perhaps you can bring some cutting material?

We had a wonderful walk through the interior of the Mount Panorama race track, with Geoff Windsor as our guide, on 16th March. Geoff has written a descriptive article about the walk further into this newsletter. I have to comment however on some of the sights that particularly excited me. There was an extensive bank absolutely covered in Chrysocephalum semipapposum; elsewhere quite an expanse of Ajuga australis, which I hadn’t come across before. We saw two species of Cryptandra – C. amara and C. propinqua. Astroloma humisifum (Native Cranberry) was dotted around our walk area. The plants were covered in bright red tube-like flowers. You will be interested to hear that none of the aforementioned plants are evident on the northern facing slope of the Mount adjacent to the Barry Gurten Drive (across from the rifle range). What a great day!

Gillian Baldwin APSCWDG President

P.S The next committee meeting will be on Thursday 18th April, 12.00 noon at the Bathurst Community Bowling Club. All members are welcome.

Plant of the Month: CorreaWELL, WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT? My favourites are all the members of the Correa family. Every colour, red, pink, white, yellow, orange, (but no blue so far) and every type—from groundcover to tall shrubs can fill a spot in your garden. What’s more, they are easy to propagate, and the honeyeaters just adore them.

At the moment I am especially pleased with Correa glabra, sometimes called Correa Dusty Bells. It has dense, shiny dark green foliage and the many flowers are cream bells.I had some tubestock that I had propagated, so planted them in a curved row, and eventually pruned them into a hedge. Others we have trimmed into round green balls, and they look good too.They have come through the rainy weather, and the extreme heat, with minimal care, and are now covered in cream flowers. There are pink variations of Correa glabra, so keep your eye out for several of them. They will grow to about a metre or perhaps a little more if left unpruned.

CENTRAL WEST GROUP – NEWSLETTER VOL.16 NO 3

APR 2013

Marcia Bonham APSCWDG Vice President

March Field Trip n beautiful autumn weather on Saturday 16th March, about ten of us gathered for a walk up into the reserve within the Mt Panorama racing circuit. It became evident from the time we

approached the Mount that we were not its only visitors. Autofest made lots of smoke and noise, but we had a beautiful time exploring things more enduring (we hope)!

IWe met at Marie and Norman Clark’s Summerset Orchard on

Conrod Straight, enjoyed some freshly picked figs and shared some food, conversation and plants before heading for the upper slopes. Marie and I (and three other siblings) grew up on Summerset Orchard and explored the bush above the orchard as kids, chasing rabbits, playing in the gullies and rounding-up the cows.

he reserve is a good place for a plant walk. The ground has almost certainly never been ploughed because it’s so steep. It has mostly been only lightly grazed and its trees

only ever partly cleared, if at all. Also, the geology and soil are distinctive. The Mount, at depth, is composed of the same granite the underlies Bathurst and its neighbourhood, but is distinguished by being capped with Tertiary basalt, the remains of lava flowing from the local volcano some few million years ago; not that long before our earliest upright ancestors. The lava filled valleys in its path and its flat, level surface is the origin of the present flat tops of Mt Panorama and likewise Mt Stewart a few kilometres to the north-west. Where subsequent erosion has exposed the floors of the flooded valleys, as occurs near the top of Mt Panorama, ancient river gravels are visible. Mt Panorama’s basalt cap has been quarried for blue metal or building stones in the past and blue metal is still taken from Mt Stewart.

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Weathering and erosion of the basalt cap have left a film of basaltic soil and stones and some of the old river gravel on the granite slopes below. The basaltic soil is reddish to chocolatey (in the hollows) and classed as krasnozem (red) or chocolate soil. It is fairly fertile and well-structured and has lots of stones.

Erosion along drainage lines down the steep slopes has cut down deeply into the underlying granite, producing steep-sided gullies with continuing erosion of their sidewalls. The largest gully may pre-date European settlement (suggested for other big local granite gullies by Bill Semple).

J Clunies Ross collected at least some plants from the Mt Panorama basalt over 100 years ago in a study of vegetation differences in relation to geology, published

in 1898. (APS Central West District Group has a copy). The Mt Panorama area was known as Bald Hills at the time. The study was mainly concerned with the other main geologies around Bathurst and Clunies Ross noted some plants from the basalt, but did not list them comprehensively. There have been other published reports on Bathurst vegetation right up to Barbara

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Mactaggart’s 2003 Bathurst Vegetation Management Plan, but none seem to report on detailed botanical surveys of Mt Panorama or other local hills with similar basalt caps. Ray Mjadwesch has surveyed the former Sir Joseph Banks Nature Reserve on the southern slopes of Mt Panorama and we are hoping to see the results. With help from Ray and others, I am preparing a flora list of the area and now can include some additional plants noted on this March 2013 walk.

Some of the plants found on Mt Panorama by Clunies Ross have not been reported since his time, including Banksia marginata on the basalt and Hakea microcarpa on the adjacent granite. We didn’t see either species on our walk and it would be nice to find some survivors.

We did however come across some very interesting plants including Crytandra propinqua and Brachyloma daphnoides which are uncommon elsewhere close to Bathurst and were not reported by Clunies Ross.

Despite the season, many plants still had some flowers. There was a (sloping) sea of Chrysocephalum semipapposum and a widespread scattering of Calotis lappulacea, bright green and yellow. Also Vittadinia, Tricoryne, Glycine, Chrysocephalum apiculatum and Wahlenbergia. There was a colony of Astroloma humifusum, including one plant covered in bright red flowers and some Ajuga australis, also with some flowers, both living in the far south-eastern corner of the reserve. Bursaria carrying a few flowers was common in the gullies and we also saw a few Bears- ears, Cymbonotus and Convolvulus erubescens in flower.

Other plants seen on our walk include the round-leaf form of Lomandra multiflora(?), lots of Lomandra longifolia and Dianella revoluta and a few plants of the beautiful native sorghum, Sorghum leiocladum and Barbed-wire grass Cymbopogon refractus. The only wattle we saw in the top part of the area was Acacia implexa which was quite common. Acacia dealbata is growing in the orchard country below. Yellow box, Apple box and Ribbon gum were on the reserve also. Blakely’s red gum is probably present, though we didn’t see any.

ecent visits have encountered large numbers of kangaroos, but we did not see many on our walk. A large heavy dark wallaroo was in the cleared orchard area.

Kangaroos have made tracks through the gullies that are eroding noticeably. The dense woody weed understorey seems to be forcing them to over-use just a few tracks.

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We were pleased to see a colony of Varied Sitellas exploring tree branches just above our heads given that their current conservation status in NSW is vulnerable. We also noticed Grey Fantails and Rainbow Bee-eaters and heard Rufous Whistler calls.

Less pleasing were the widespread exotic weeds. St John’s Wort is very widespread and Cotoneaster, along with Firethorn and Privet has formed a fairly thick understorey in timbered

areas. We also saw Sweet Briar, Horehound and probably African Lovegrass.

With so many weeds, a big population of kangaroos and recent weather extremes (and perhaps more to come) some members of the present native flora and fauna on the Mount seem to be facing tough times. However, something can be done about all these pressures!

s we returned down the slopes, the view from the reserve was wonderful, across the Macquarie Valley to timbered hills; from Tarana Mountain in the east, through the Ovens

and Mt Horrible ranges to Turon country in the north.AMost of us stayed for lunch on Marie’s verandah, enjoying more

fresh fruit with her native garden beside us. She has a beautiful large Grevillea arenaria, a border of Westringia and a collection of well-grown Poa, Derwentia and Stypandra.

Thank you Marie and Norman for your generosity and hospitality.

Geoff WindsorAPSCWDG Member

VIEW PAST NEWSLETTERS ONLINE: http://aptscw.wordpress.com/previous-newsletters/

What’s on for members?Propagation Day‘Daleba’, 490 Freemantle Rd, Mt. Rankin20th April, 11am

Our hosts are Donna and Terry RathBring: Propagation material (cuttings, seeds, pots, secateurs & gloves), morning tea and lunch.Supplied: Propagation mix, tea & coffeeDirections from Bathurst: Travel 4.9km from Eglinton Rural Fire Brigade Station on Freemantle Rd. ‘Daleba’ is on the right.

CarpoolingFrom Bathurst McDonaldsContact Marcia Bonham if you require carpooling.

Preliminary calendar(dates to be marked in your diary)

May 18/19TBA

June 15/16TBA

July 20/21TBA

August 17Rylstone – Gai Summers garden

Sept 21Cowra gardens

Oct 12 & 13Armidale - Regional Get-together

Oct 19Fenn’s garden & Mt Rankin Reserve

Nov 16EOY Function

NurseriesBilby Blooms of BinnawayBy appointment only, recent plant list availableNative plant for gardens & revegetation projectsContact: Annabelle or AnthonyT: 02 6844 1044E: bilby.blooms@tpg.com.au

Blue Wren Bush FarmWattle FlatInclude local seed salesContact: Geoffrey WindsorT: 02 6337 7155

Glenbrook Native Plant ReserveGreat Western Highway, GlenbrookOpen:12pm-4pm, Sat, Sun, Wed

Oberon Plateau Farm Trees‘Bennelong’ 539 Mozart Rd. OberonNative tube stock for gardens, windbreaks, wildlife refuges and revegeration10% discountContact: Clea & John RalphT: 02 6335 8468E: winter@ix.net.au

Stoney Creek Wildflowers The Bridle Track, DuramanaLocal grower of Australian Native & Protea cut flowers.Fresh Bouquets & Arrangements available at Bathurst Farmers Markets, IGA Supermarket (Trinity Heights & Westpoint).Special orders delivered to Bathurst.Contact: Fiona & Rob McgregorT/F: 02 6337 1791M: 0427 371 791E: stoneycreekwildflowers@bordernet.com.au

Riverside Nursery171191 Morrisset St., BathurstWe grow & stock a unique range of acclimatised roses, trees, shrubs, conifers, seedlings and native plantsOpen: Mon-Sat, 8am-5pm, 10am-5pmT: 02 6331 3121

Wombat Gully Native Nursery1729 Coxs Creek Rd. Rylstone 2849We grow trees and shrubs in recycled milk cartons for revegetation projects throughout the district. 10% discountT: 02 6379 6202E: carmelspark@gmail.com

Have your heard?Nature Conservation CouncilRegional Conference, Bathurst 4-5 May 2013

Please see attached flyer for further information