For this issue I was going to take you for a little ramble around my Wallum garden in the hills of Samsonvale, south-east Queensland. But today - Thursday 30th April - I spent most of the day at the Sunshine Coast, and returned home feeling a little bit sad.

First of all, I went to Emu Swamp, a place where I have had many a ramble over the past eight years, and where I have seen so many changes. The Motorway extension in late 1992 was a very big change, which has seen the original gravel road rarely used now, except by people looking at the wildflowers, or more often by those despicable persons who dump their garden and other rubbish in our beautiful pristine natural bushland. Here in a National Park, piles of rubbish just across the road from the Park sign, show how ignorant and uncaring these persons are.

But it is amazing how those Wallum plants continue to survive in spite of what is done to them. Banksia robur, Persoonia virgata and Eucalyptus bancroftii are among the plants which are thriving, with one stand of the Banksia growing larger each year. That strange fern, Lycopodium cernuum, is massed along the old road, in spite of the introduced grasses which try to subdue it.

Unfortunately, grading of the road verge on another section of the old gravel road has damaged some of my old plant "friends". Searching for a special shrub form of Persoonia stradbrokensis (cornifolia) with perfectly round leaves, I was disturbed to find that it had died since I last saw it in September 1997. I suspect that an earlier grading had been close enough to damage the root system. This plant was an unusual, but most attractive form, and I had tried to grow cuttings of it, but with no success. Now it is gone forever. There was only ever the one plant.

So I departed from this old "stamping ground" and decided to check out the Quinn development at Marcoola - a rambling area for the past four years. Here we had collected many, many plants for our gardens, but never enough of those more unusual, difficult ones.

I knew that the latest stage of development had begun in February, and was prepared for the worst, but it was worse than I had anticipated. Of the area over which we have been rambling for four years, nothing remains untouched - it is all filled and reshaped, and not a wildflower is left in sight.

Gone forever are the masses of Epacris obtusifolia and Burchardia umbellata which are among the most beautifully perfumed Wallum flowers, along with the Sowerbaea juncea. No more will the spring at Marcoola have drifts of pale mauve gently swaying in the sea breeze, or the spectacle of all the yellow Dillwynia floribunda, along with the contrasting bright cerise-pink of the Boronia falcifolia.
 
 

Wallum Boronia Boronia falcifolia. Family Rutaceae.

 

Boronia falcifolia

The biggest losses are those of the more unusual plants which we had not succeeded in relocating - the palest, almost white, flowered Mirbelia rubiifolia, the Boronia parviflora, which is so selective about its preferred wet peat-sand situation; the unusual and unidentified Hibbertia with flowers as small as those of H. acicularis and fine pointed leaves which are hairy on a compact little plant; the prostrate Persoonia so like P. virgata, but the leaves tend to curve - it would be a fantastic garden plant; the ground orchids such as the blue Thelymitra pauciflora; a green and white Prasophyllum of which I found one plant last spring but couldn't locate it when I later returned; the yellow Diuris or Doubletails which were lost years ago under the development's office building. The Marcoola Hibbertia vestita is a splendid plant with a compact growth and large bright yellow flowers which are the biggest I have ever seen in H. vestita. Luckily I have several of both of these Hibbertias in the garden, as well as a very attractive and thriving form of H. acicularis, which falls over logs and rocks in the most graceful manner.

No more will we ramble around the Marcoola patch wondering which plant to dig up next - there are none left. And I left it too late to go there and collect the seeds of the lovely Leptospermum liversidgei, which I suggested we give a sample of to next year's Conference attendees. I will have to look elsewhere for my seed.
 
 

Tufted Iris Patersonia sericea. Family Iridaceae.

Patersonia sericea

The bold Patersonia sericea flowers will no longer grace the scene, and we will find no more of the shy little P. fragilis, but perhaps some of our rescued plants will provide seed for us to propagate and grow. How many know what Stackhousia viminea looks like, and how beautiful the tiny green flowers are before they produce attractive fruits? My friend and Wallum devotee, Betty, will mourn the loss of the yellow pea-flowered Viminaria juncea, which is notoriously hard to grow. In fact, she will lament the loss of the area from which she has gained so much pleasure and knowledge, along with the plants she relocated.

I looked at the trucks and the huge mound of soil waiting to be spread, took a few photos, and departed. I'll save a bit of time now, with no Marcoola plants to rescue. Come spring, there will be houses instead of the glorious spectacle of all those wildflowers, and everyone will be poorer - it was a beautiful place to ramble.