Long beaches backed by high rainbow-coloured dunes, heathlands of colourful wildflowers, rainforest, banksia and scribbly gum woodlands, lakes and waterways this combination of habitats sounds like a plant lovers fantasy. And so it proved.
Early in August, Peter and I joined Samford SGAP for a three-day weekend exploring the plants of the Cooloola (southern) section of the Great Sandy National Park. This area of 56,000 ha stretches from Rainbow Beach almost to Tewantin, and includes all the delights mentioned. (The northern section of the National Park occupies the northern half of Fraser Island.)
On Friday morning we all met at the Headquarters of the Noosa Parks Association for a talk by Dr. Arthur Harrold, author of "Wildflowers of the Noosa-Cooloola area". With the assistance of fresh examples, he discussed what was in flower now in both the wet and dry heathland areas. He also posed the question "How do plants know just when to flower?"
The Noosa Parks Association is committed to conserving Noosas natural environment and includes a Botany Group and a Bushwalkers Group. Their activities range from bush and bird excursions, tree planting, lectures, and park and beach clean-ups. Our contact here was Stephanie Haslam. Further enquiries could be directed to the Association at P.O. Box 836 Noosa Heads, 4567.
In the afternoon we explored by boat the flora surrounding the Noosa River, returning to the Associations headquarters for dinner and slides at night.
Saturday and Sunday were spent travelling by four-wheel-drive bus and "SGAPping*" along the sands of Teewah and Rainbow Beach. It was obvious that a lot of planning had gone into the weekend because the driver knew just where to stop for us to examine a wide variety of plants.
At one place we walked through a Pandanus and Banksia integrifolia forest. Three types of honeyeaters called from the branches as we inspected the blooms of Dianella caerulea, Phebalium woombye, Astrotricha longifolia and A. glabra.
 |
| Phebalium woombye |
At the Carlo sandblow, the westerly wind blew white drifts of sand over the top, past a few stalwart Casuarina equisetifolia trees. Too late to catch the low tide safely along the beach, we returned via the Cooloola Way, to the delight of the wildflower addicts. On the banks of the Noosa River, beside a very old wooden bridge, was a huge, ancient, scribbly gum, Eucalyptus racemosa, with lots of pink Boronia falcifolia and purple Hovea acutifolia in the surrounding areas.
 |
| Hovea acutifolia (Purple Hovea) |
On Sunday, after crossing the ferry, we drove to the airport track and spent a little while looking at the heath flowers there. To the accompaniment of white-cheeked honeyeaters and noisy friarbirds, we saw large purple Patersonia sericea, white Burchardia umbellata, pink Boronia falcifolia, white Epacris pulchella, Pimelia linifolia, Conospermum taxifolium, Zieria laxiflora and a few blooms of Ricinocarpos pinifolius. Amongst the greenery were lots of Banksia oblongifolia, Caustis recurvata, and Strangea linearis.
 |
| Banksia oblongifolia (Dwarf Banksia) |
The bus began to sink in the peaty track and we quickly moved on. Along the sand again past Teewah, we stopped in front of a natural garden. Massed blossoms of yellow Pultenaea sp. and mauve Scaevola calendulacea with green Pandanus sp. were framed by curtains of grey Casuarina equisetifolia and had, as their backdrop, the multicoloured sand cliffs.
Good sightings of four large whales close inshore, and surfing dolphins, intrigued us on the drive to the wreck of the Cherry Venture (and its "resident" ice-cream van).
Our lunch at the Freshwater day use area was enlivened by the antics of a very large goanna (lace monitor). A walk into Lake Freshwater about 3 km round trip took us through scribbly gum woodland and open forest to the peaceful lake, flanked with reeds and twisted paperbarks. How sad to have to head back to our accommodation and home!
It was a great weekend and lots of congratulations to the organizers for putting it all together so efficiently, especially all the superb food.
* "SGAPing" here means wandering slowly, inspecting and trying to identify plants.
Top |Home | You & SGAP | Getting Involved with SGAP | SGAP Qld Region | SGAP Publications
Local Branches | Study Groups | Study Group List | Queensland Nurseries | Special Articles