The Shepherd's Daughter

This morning the desire to go for a walk somewhere "different" struck us, and I thought of a place near Lal Lal I had heard of but never visited. 

Getting there was an adventure, as we had to drive down rough unnamed roads, (tracks, really) through forest it would be easy to get lost in. We saw a mob of kangaroos at one point, but they disappeared into the bush before we could get photographic evidence.

I parked near this patch of grasstrees:

And wildflowers:

Epacris impressa, the common heath

 

We set off on foot, not knowing quite how far we needed to go. Along the way we found this fungus:

Ghost fungus, Omphalotus nidiformis

Ghost fungus glows green at night, which would be amazing to see. But I'm not driving down those tracks at night! Plus this fungus was right beside an old, unmarked, unfenced, mine shaft, which could be just a little dangerous in the dark.

Eventually we found our destination:

The grave of a young girl who died in the 1860s. This article from the ABC in 2018: Shepherd's daughter's grave includes some information about who she probably was, and when she probably died.

The wooden fence was put up 80-odd years after the girl's death, and these carved details were added some time since 1951. The photo from 1951 shows bush including grasstrees right beside the grave, but now the surrounding area is bare. Too many visitors, perhaps. 

Some of those visitors leave things behind:

I wonder what a 6-year-old in the 1860s would have made of plastic flowers, or a stuffed toy dog.