In November 1998 the Pilliga Forest was a glowing example of our Australian bush taking advantage of the two great ravages – fire and flood.

Twelve months before, the bushfires raged so extensively that volunteers from Queensland and Victoria came to help. Large tracts of State Forest between Narrabri and Coonabarabran became darkened wasteland – bare ground dotted with black tree corpses.

Six months later, prolonged winter and spring rain brought floods to the Pilliga. By November a few of the roads through the forest were open to 4WD vehicles; so Peter and I went to look for wildflowers and to find out how the cypresses (Callitris) had fared.

We swam our Rodeo through the first creek, just out of Narrabri, and kept to the centres of the sandy roads. We had read about quicksand and didn’t want to test the soft edges.

The bulldozers had changed "Twenty- foot Road" into "Twenty-chain Road" during the fires as they made firebreaks. It was here amongst the lush regrowth on the widened verges that we saw our first carpets of blue Wahlenbergia, and yellow Bracteantha bracteata, clothing the fallen tree trunks. Little posies of blue Brunonia australis (one of Dorothy Gordon’s favourites at Myall Park) rose out of the reddish sand. Also here were Pomax umbellata, Dampiera, Hibbertia and Goodenia species, and Cono-spermum taxifolium.

Bracteantha bracteata

We could have spent hours here trying to identify species, but we felt vulnerable parked in the middle of the road. (As the day progressed we thought we must be the only vehicle in the forest, as the only signs of life were plants and birds.)

Further down the main forest road, we photographed the regrowth at Lane’s Mill Flora Reserve. Epicormic shoots greened the black trunks of ironbarks, Xanthorrhoea flowers were turning to seed and everywhere were mauve fringe lilies (Thysanotus sp.), white Micro-myrtus and a white Prostanthera with a speckled throat. Brown and yellow thornbills, yellow robins and grey fantails played and sang among the new growth. And was that Aotus ericifolia mixed with Acacia baileyana in the green understorey?

Along the Broombush Plains, their namesakes (Melaleuca uncinata) were a mass of cream blossoms above the fringe lilies, while blue Dampiera speckled the red roadside. Along the side road to Salt Caves, the surface was cut by deep channels where recent flood waters had poured off the Pilliga. Here, Dianella were already in fruit, and we added white Actinotus, purple Melaleuca diosmatifolia and tiny spade flowers (Hybanthus monopetalus) to our list.

Melaleuca diosmatifolia

Back on the main Forest Way, we were flagged down by the first people we’d seen all day. They were bogged down a slippery side road (as were we when we went to their aid!) Our air-jack, pumped up by the exhaust, lifted us both from the watery mire. They had been looking for the rare Pilliga mouse. Wildflowers seemed a safer quarry.

Next morning, we drove up the Newell Highway and inspected Boronia Trail and Sparrow Road, both leading west into the forest. A black cypress against the blue sky, with starkly opened seed capsules where its leaves used to be, was a grim reminder of the fire’s inferno. Some of the regrowth was amazing, but we didn’t see any baby cypresses. Instead, we waded ankle deep through a wildflower garden of Dampiera, Pomax, Hibbertia, Goodenia and Hybanthus. The knee high background of Acacia and Dodonaea topped off its grand design.

We drove home via the alpine vegetation of Mt. Kaputar, the wildflower carpets of Gibraltar Range (Lepto-spermum, Boronia, Isopogon, Dillwynia, Grevillea acerata and Conospermum burgessiorum) and the rainforest of Washpool. These National Parks all have camping grounds and were marked down for longer stays in the future.

A marvellous book about the Pilliga (and a bit of Australia’s early history) is Eric Rolls’ "A Million Wild Acres". I borrowed it from the library on our return and can highly recommend it.

Every traveller in the Pilliga State Forest should carry the detailed map of the area published by the State Forestry Service of NSW. (We obtained ours from the Visitor Centre in Narrabri).