Blue Sky Festival

On Saturday 17th March, the Eastern Hills Branch participated in the Blue Sky Festival at Mundaring. Held in and around Sculpture Park,. the festival focussed on sustainability and environmental issues. Our display had a theme of Wattles- get rid of the weeds and grow local. With the help of photographs and actual foliage samples, we were able to demonstrate the difference. We gave away propagation kits comprising pre-treated acacia seeds- we had A.alata, A.celastrifolia, A.pulchella and A.dentifera- and starter pots containing seed raising mix. These were popular and quite a lot of people already knew of the proliferation of some of the eastern states wattles such as Flinder’s Range Wattle.

The festival had many community groups participating such as the Naturalists, Kenyana, St Barbe’s Nursery and a range of talks on nest boxes, bushfire preparation, battery storage and revegetation. The Tiny House was very interesting as was the entertainment from the Junkadelic band! The festival was supported by The Mary Bremner Small Funds bequest via our branch.

Congratulations Michael Morcombe AM

Michael was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2018 Honours list …　”for significant service to conservation and the environment in the fields of natural history and ornithology as a photographer, illustrator, and author“.

Michael is a foundation member of the Wildflower Society of WA, Armadale Branch (since March 1961), past branch president and patron (2008–2016), and since 2015 an Honorary Life Member of the Society. Michael – along with wife Irene – has published approximately 40 books plus many other publications. His photography, flora and bird illustrations, written works and ‘Australian Birds’ smartphone app have won many awards both nationally and internationally. Being made a Member of the Order of Australia is a well-deserved recognition of his endeavours in the field of natural history.

Thank you, Minister Dawson

Our heartfelt thanks to WA Environment Minister Stephen Dawson, who has announced the final outright rejection of mining of the Helena Aurora Range and the intention to create a Helena Aurora Range national park.

We invite our members to personally thank Minister Dawson, and to look at the proposal for a national park prepared by the Wildflower Society, the Wilderness Society, and the Helena and Aurora Advocates.

Download the Helena and Aurora National Park Proposal here (3mb).

Bush Heritage says ‘thanks’

Wonderful blog from Bush Heritage thanking the Wildflower Society for conducting flora surveys at Hamelin Station and Eurardy Station. We had a lot of fun doing the work… and it is our pleasure. And how nice to receive public recognition.

‘We now have over 50 Threatened, Priority and/or endemic plant species on the list for Eurardy Reserve – amazing! Our most recent purchase in the Mid-west – Hamelin Station Reserve – is located next to the Shark Bay World Heritage Area and had never been surveyed in detail for flora.’ -Vanessa Westcott, Bush Heritage Ecologist

Read the blog here: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/blog/the-wonderful-wildflower-society-of-wa

Photo courtesy Bush Heritage

Helena and Aurora Range National Park Proposal

Many groups (including the Wildflower Society) and individuals involved in the Helena and Aurora Range (Bungalbin) campaign have been very pro active over the last few months to show that there is strong public support for protecting the Range in its entirety. This is important to encourage and support our WA government to say no to mining the Range.

There is every indication that the WA government will make a final decision on whether to allow mining or not within the next couple of weeks (before Christmas). Otherwise the decision will not be made until later in the New Year. The decision will be made by Minister Stephen Dawson, however, he also needs to have the support of other key Ministers in Cabinet as the final decision also considers social and economic factors in addition to environmental. Cabinet meet for the last time this year this Monday on 11 December 2017.

Download the Helena and Aurora National Park Proposal here (3mb).

Advanced plant ID workshop

An over-subscribed workshop. Non-members lining up to become members so they could attend at member’s prices. This shows how popular this workshop was – and how successful. With a fantastic presenter (Dr Kevin Thiele – former Curator of the WA Herbarium) and 5 assistants for 20 registrants, each with their own binocular microscope, this was a supermassive learning experience. Even the presenters and assistants learnt as the on–line database keys used to identify locally collected plants in flower required experienced botanists to interpret. Only a little botanical experience was required as Kevin went through the basics of what the plant parts are – describing them with the actual plants that everyone had in their hand, drawing little pictures or using our new digital microscope to demonstrate. Everyone took home a scalpel and pair of tweezers so they could undertake their own dissecting at home in future – all they need is their own microscope or hand lens.

The afternoon field trip to Kensington bushland was equally instructive as Mike Hislop and Rob Davis assisted everyone in applying their knowledge in identifying and recognising plants in flower – and then amazed everyone by identifying plants that weren’t in flower – including such cryptic plants as Lomandras, Alexgeorgias and Amphipogons.

And if you don’t know what they are, better look out for the next Plant ID Workshop coming soon to a place near you.

Dr Eddy Wajon

Meet 2017 Team of Murdoch Branch

The last AGM at Murdoch Branch resulted in the election of a new group of enthusiastic Murdoch Branch Committee Members. With a few changes along the way our current committee is: President: Christine Allen, Vice-President: Diana Corbyn, Secretary: Sheree Walter, Treasurer: Mathew Woods, General Committee Members: Felicity Bairstow, Gus King, Ross Young, and Eddy Wajon. Let’s introduce you to the team:

Dr Christine Allen has been a life-long plant-lover and spent her childhood exploring the second-oldest National Park in the world, the Royal National Park in NSW. The weird and wonderful diversity of plants in the southwest of WA drew her to Perth where she completed a PhD at UWA with DPaW on threatened flora in the Stirling Range National Park. Christine is now an active advocate for conservation and sustainability. Favourite plant: Banksia coccinea.

Diana Corbyn has served as Branch President through three terms, has been a Vice President and a committee member throughout the life of the branch. Since she became a lecturer at South Metropolitan TAFE’s Murdoch Campus in 1991 she continually enthuses her love and knowledge of the local flora in hearts and minds of the students she teaches. In 1998 she initiated the wildflower walks and has continued to this day. Come on out this year and meet Diana at Wireless Hill, Orelia or Samson Park.

Sheree Walters joined Murdoch committee for the first time, few weeks after our AGM (Welcome!), and she took bravely on a responsible role of secretary. Sheree grew up in the wheatbelt region of Western Australia with a passion for the environment and natural landscapes. After completing a Bachelor degree in Environmental Science in 2014, Sheree has recently returned to Curtin University to undertake a PhD in restoration genetics of native flora. She is particularly interested in landscape ecology and the importance of biodiversity – including plants, animals, insects and fungi – in both natural and restored landscapes.

Mathew Woods is our fantastic treasurer. Mat works in the Bushland’s and Wetland’s of Perth. Mat has a Love of all plant life but especially WA natives. He is particularly fascinated by the food plants and prehistoric flora. He was exposed to the native plants very early while camping in the Jarrah forest and surrounding regions and could not get enough. This fascination led him to study Conservation and Land Management at the Challenger Institute of Technology. In his spare time Mat enjoys practicing traditional bushman skills.

Felicity Bairstow (ex McGeorge) calls herself a life long nature nerd from country WA. She has spent the last 20 or so years working to conserve bushland and wetlands south of the Swan river here in Perth. A lot of that time went into the long campaign to protect the North Lake Reserve from Roe Highway Stage 8. She is now a co-convenor of the Community Wildlife Corridor group which has the vision of transforming the now partially cleared road reserve into a wildlife corridor and trail for people to enjoy and learn about the amazing plants, animals and culture of this area. Felicity served on the Murdoch committee many years ago and is very pleased to be back on Committee and dealing with much more pleasant aspects of plant conservation.

Ross Young is fresh out of uni, having graduated from Curtin University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology. Don’t let that fool you, though – he’s longer in the tooth than you think, as uni followed a 27-year jaunt with Commonwealth Bank (and an accounting degree). Ross has a keen interest in plant ecology (and birds) and Western Australian plants (and birds), in particular – and has always been interested in the natural world around him. As a kid, he learnt (from his Mum) the pleasure to be had from being able to recognise (and name) the plants (and birds) in the garden (which, even then, included native plants). Banksias are probably his favourite plants (especially Banksia coccinea and Banksia ilicifolia) but, if pressed, he’ll still admit to a lingering fondness for roses.

Dr Eddy Wajon loves nature – whether it be chemical, botanical or zoological, he loves beauty in all its forms. He’s been called a disrupter – challenging the status quo, thinking outside the box, trying to be different, and generally annoying those in power and supposed leadership positions. However, he tries to be creative, inclusive, contributory and a force for positive change.

Angus (Gus) King, like Eddy, loves the beauty and magic of nature, especially our native trees. Other than recognising their beauty and threatened status he knows little about native plants but can still actively contribute to preserving them for future generations. He originally studied geology but more by accident than design had a career in IT. His real passion is renewable energy and even though retired he probably still spends too much time on his computer helping to bring about its adoption rather than learning those plant names.

Come and say Hi!

LIKE US and See more updates on our MURDOCH BRANCH FACEBOOK PAGE.

May Management Update Now Available

The most recent monthly update from the Management Committee is now also available on our website, access exclusively for Members only. Log in to the Members area and then the tab ‘Management Committee Updates.’ If you have any difficulties logging in to the system, please email our volunteer administrator at nmcl@westnet.com.au – we can reset your password, give you a simpler password, or guide you through the log-in procedure.

Come and Learn about WA Native Community

DPaW invites you to attend the Banksia Woodland Management Workshop on Friday 16th June 2017 from 10am – 4.30pm at the McNamara Conservation Science Centre, Department of Parks and Wildlife (17 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington, WA). SEE VENUE CHANGE BELOW

Department of Parks and Wildlife is planning a packed program with 21 speakers giving 5, 15 and 20-minute talks for community and professional land managers of Banksia woodland. One of the speakers is the patron of Murdoch Branch Dr Joe Fontaine. Joe will also talk on outcomes of PhD project undertaken by one of his student Pawel Waryszak. Pawel and Joe spent 4 years surveying and analysing the outcomes of multiple experimental treatments in the restoration project that utilized topsoil salvaged from under cleared Banksia woodland at the Jandakot Airport. The topsoil, that contains large native seed bank, was transferred to two restoration sites, at Anketell Road and Forrestdale Lake, with aim to rehabilitate degraded paddock. Come, learn and show your support for this unique WA ecological community.

The workshop is planned to start with an overview of Banksia woodlands on the Swan Coastal Plain and more details about its very recent federal listing as a threatened ecological community. Parks and Wildlife staff will then share outcomes from five years of the Banksia Woodland Restoration Project, as well as research on fire recovery and weed management. To follow, sessions will showcase studies from respected academics and researchers on the topics of dieback, groundwater, genetics, fire, and fauna, and feature case studies of Banksia woodland management from local government and community perspectives. An opportunity for informal discussion will follow. The workshop is a free event with lunch, afternoon tea and refreshments provided but registration is critical.

On Tuesday 20th June 2017 (10am – 12 noon), Parks and Wildlife staff offers also a guided tour to Banksia woodland restoration site at Anketell Road in Oakford (self-drive).

To register, contact Julia Cullity at Julia.Cullity@dpaw.wa.gov.au or on 9442 0320 (please indicate whether you will be attending the workshop, field trip or both). Registrations close Friday 2nd June 2017.

STOP PRESS: CHANGE OF VENUE AS AT 29 MAY 2017

Due to a huge response of interest, we have changed the venue of the Banksia Woodland Management Workshop.

Banksia Woodland Management Workshop
The University Club of Western Australia, UWA
9.45–4.30pm Friday 16 June 2017

Parking may be limited. Additional free parking at Parks and Wildlife Crawley office is available 1km from the venue. Please see reception for a parking permit.

Please confirm that you can make this change of venue. And if you haven’t already responded, please let me know if you have any special dietary requirements and if you would like to attend the post-conference field trip on Tuesday 20 June 2017.

Cheers

Julia Cullity

Community Bushland Coordinator

P: 9442 0320| M: 0400 017 977| E: julia.cullity@dpaw.wa.gov.au

Western Australian Fossil Plants and Climate

Dr Ken McNamara, University of Cambridge was guest speaker for Armadale Branch meeting in April 2017.

Ken began his talk by stressing the importance of looking at the nature of rocks and fossil plants in helping to understand past climates. In particular they have helped show that over the last half a billion years, the Earth has experienced long periods of alternating ‘Greenhouse’ and ‘Icehouse’ worlds. During the former, CO2 levels and global temperature were much higher than in the current ‘Icehouse’ world we inhabit.

Ken’s talk centred on two fossil plant sites, both of which have only received preliminary studies. One, dated at about 130 million years old (Cretaceous Period) is near Kalbarri. The other, about 40 million years old, is at Walebing, east of Moora. They are very different from one another in that the older site near Kalbarri contains plants living before the advent of flowering plants. The fossils show that the area was dominated by ferns (about 40% of the flora), including gleicheniacean, dipteridacean and osmundacean types. The rest of the flora was mainly arauraciacean conifers (25%) and an extinct group, the seed ferns (25%). The rest are forms yet to be identified. Some of the seed ferns are similar to fossils found in India, which was close to Australia at this time. While much of the fossil plant material is leaves and broken branches, there are a number of seeds and also frequent seed scales from the conifers.

Like this Cretaceous flora, the younger 40 million-year-old (Eocene Epoch) Walebing site preserves the fossils as impressions in very silicified sandstones. These rocks are known as silcretes and reflect formation at a time when the climate was much wetter and warmer than today, despite being located at much higher latitudes than now (55°–60°), with pronounced seasonality. The fossils are very common and reflect a very diverse flora, dominated by proteaceans, such as banksia, grevillea and possibly macadamia. The very diverse array of banksia leaf types show biodiversity levels were high even at this time, and probably had been on the nutrient-poor soils for tens of millions of years before, back into late Cretaceous times.

As well as these sclerophyllous plants the flora also contains rainforest elements, such as the Southern Antarctic beech, Nothofagus and many myrtaceous leaves that resemble modern rainforest types. Araucareaceans are still present, as well as casuarina-type fruiting bodies, including some types present today only in rainforests in eastern Australia and New Caledonia.

Study of the leaves of one of the banksia species, B. paleocrypta, shows that it has sunken stomata, suggesting that it was preadapted for the drying out of the Australian continent that has occurred over the last 25 million years or so. The rainforest elements have disappeared from WA, leaving only those forms, such as the proteaceans, that were preadapted to both the nutrient-deficient soils and the seasonal periods of low water availability.

In his closing comments, Ken pointed out that much more work needs to carried out on these floras. This will help provide a better understanding of the evolution of the rich flora that we see in Western Australia today.

Nothofagus and Banksia leaves, Walebing (Photo: K. McNamara)