Walks in Two Parks

The first part of our final field trip for the year was a walk, guided by Kevin Tolhurst, through Park Lake Botanical Reserve in Creswick:

Kevin talked to us about the history of the reserve, then gave us a tour through the area for which he designed a planting scheme a few years ago:

Some parts of the new plantings are quite advanced (see first photo), although others are still very new (see below). It will be a lovely place to visit in several years (Kevin suggested "80 years") when the plantings are mature.

After this we headed to the La Gerche Trail, also near Creswick. The trail commemorates the life and work of John La Gerche who was a forest bailiff in the area from the 1880s.

Part of his role was protecting the forest from illegal timber-cutting, and part was to repair the already cleared sections of forest. He planted thousands of trees,  most not native to the area. The trail is 2.2km long, and passes through some of the remaining experimental plantations of pines, and oaks, and other trees:

Near the beginning of the trail, this amazing building was the office of the nursery, built in 1912:

The oak tree it is under was planted in the 1920s.

This nearby fountain dates from the same period:

It must have been something to see when it was working!

The actual trail is closed to the public at the moment, due to a recent storm which brought down a few trees:

But we were granted special access because we were there to work. Our jobs included cleaning signs, replacing missing signs, cutting back overhanging branches, and treating a few weeds.

I loved the colour and texture of the bark of this maritime pine, Pinus pilaster, a large tree which was planted in  1888:

It comes from southern Europe, and is invasive in parts of Australia. It is one of several species of pine that La Gerche tried out:

Along the way there were many little native wildflowers to be seen.

Rather frilly goodenia

Milkmaids with several tiny black and white moths:

A more comprehensive list of plants along the trail can be seen here: La Gerche Trail plants.

We saw a few birds, but not much other wildlife. However according to this sign a lot of the animals we see at home are also present in the park:

It was quite a warm day (28 at our place, could have been more where we were), so the walk up and down the trail was hard work, even without pulling branches off the trail and the like. It was a relief to get back to the starting point, have a big drink of water, and eat our picnic tea.