Rock of Gibraltar

The last two days I have been doing surveys for Phebalium glandolosum an endangered plant species. The first day was looking at an area known as Rock of Gibraltar where the plant has been previously recorded, but not re-located despite surveys the last two years. It was decided to do a spring survey whilst the species is flowering. The consultants who did the survey last year was unavailable, so I decided to do it myself.

I needed to organise access to the land through the adjoining landholders property, which was kindly organised by the owner of the nearby native plant nursery. On Wednesday I drove up to Tenterfield. I arrived at Grafton and realised I’d left my GPS at home, and so I drove back home to get, which added over an hour to my trip.

Tenterfield

I arrived at Tenterfield at around 7:30pm, making up time by driving the Bald Knob short cut around Glen Innes. It is school holidays and there were lots of caravans on the road, and parents and children at the service stations and shops.

Tenterfield is a quiet town, almost everything closes by about 8:30pm. Trucks rumble through the town all night on the busy New England Highway. It is closer to Queensland than New South Wales, and some politicians and others have argued for the far north it to secede from NSW and join Qld. I checked into the Best Western Motel, and then drove into town to find something to eat before everything closed. It was a cold evening and I put on a jumper. I bought dinner at a local Gourmet Pizza shop, which was the only place open, other than a chinese and thai restaurant.

I hadn’t been to Tenterfield for at least 18 years. I stayed there for rare plants surveys in 1994, when we stayed at a noisy Caravan park near the highway. A truck pulled up in the middle of the night nearby, and I could hear cattle, on a journey to the abattoir, kicking in the truck most of the night. In 1997, I stayed in Tenterfield for a survey at Boonoo Boonoo National Park.

I also have fond memories of doing a site inspection of the Bolivia Hill property, which was for sale. That day we discovered a new species, Homoranthus croftianus, which is extremely threatened. I successfully put together a submission for the purchase of the property under the National Reserve System fund. The property was purchased in 2000, and is now known as Bolivia Hill Nature Reserve. Since then a new species of Eucalypt has been discovered Eucalytus boliviensis. There is also a locally endemic Boronia bolivienis. It really is a hot spot for plant species endemism.

Rock of Gibraltar Phebalium glandulosum Survey

Next morning I drove out of Tenterfield after shopping at the local Coles supermarket. I headed out on the Bruxner Highway. It was a perfectly still, dry and warm sunny morning. I turned into the Mole River Station road. Out into cattle grazing country, and then down into the Mole River valley on windy narrow road. Larger hills started to rise up above. I arrived at Mole River nursery on time, but realised the batteries in my GPS were flat. I met the nursery owner in one of the greenhouses. She had kindly arranged access access to Rock via an adjoining property. She also provided advice of where her husband had seen the Phebalium. She found a few batteries for my GPS.

Phebalium glandolosum subsp. eglandulosum in an endangered species that is only known to grow at Torrington and also Rock of Gibraltar. Two years ago a consultant went to the Rock of Gibraltar with the aim of setting up monitoring of a population. The population was not re-located. Last year another survey was conducted and the species was not found. The aim for this year was to do surveys in the spring flowering time of the species, where its showy yellow flowers are more evident.

The owner of the nursery took me to the gates where I needed to access the property. I stood from the road looking up at the Rock of Gibraltar with its imposing steep acid volcanic cliff faces. I drove across a grassy paddock and parked the 4WD near trees lining a creek, which I needed to follow to climb up onto the plateau. I walked the bouldery dry creek. I went past a cave, under the shade of a Mock Olive bush, with the bones of a dead goat, its skull hung by the horns on a low branch. The creek wound around at first to left. It was warm and my mouth was dry, I had two litres of water, three mandarins and muesli bars to keep me sustained for the day.

I walked along the creek for a long as possible, until it reached a rock platform, and a two or three metre rocky scramble. It looked a bit steep to go that way, so I went up the very steep slope to my right. The ground was dry, loose and gravelly, and walked carefully so as to not slip on the loose ground. A few small daisies, and native bluebells were out in flower, as well as some sparse grasses. It was a hard uphill slog, and I looked upwards towards a ridge and more even going.

The ridge has a ground cover of boulders that I need to work around and over. I waited until I reached the top before taking a drink. I had to walk up another steep scree slope before reaching the Rock of Gibraltar Plateau. I looked across at the impressive line of cliffs on the eastern side of the plateau. It was here that I saw the locally endemic Angophora exul, with its grey bark and narrow leaves. I had a drink and took a quick hand held photo of the Angophora. A little bit further along I spotted a greenhood orchid that was unfamiliar to me. Its flower are red, with hairs on the labellum. I suspect it is Pterostylis boormanii, or Skihs whiskers.

There was another scree slope I walked up to be treated to an impressive view down into the Mole River valley. The small white speck of my 4WD could seen parked way down below. Across the escarpment I saw the golden flowers of pomaderris shrubs. Then I walked down into a creek, which had a endemic species of bottle brush, that was not flowering. I walked up through a dense stand of tall Tea-tree, which was flowering. I headed up into the rock outcrop country, keeping an eye out for any flowering shrubs. The rock outcrops were very much dominated by Spinfex, and species of Lomandra, there was very little in the way of flowering shrubs other than hardy epacrids. If the Phebalium was there and flowering I should be able to see it.

I did see few individuals of Isopogon petiolaris, there was also a Dampiera, and a Dillwynia. It was hot hard work scouring the rock outcrop country, the midday sun was very warm on my back, the full sun very bright. As the afternoon wore on a few clouds started to build, and on the adjoining hills, and I heard a few rumbles of thunder. When the clouds covered the sun above me it was a pleasant respite. In the forest Westringia amabilis shrubs were flowering. I’d spent the best part of three hours looking for the Phebalium without luck. Reluctantly I walked down into the creek, and then back onto the rock scree, and took some photos of the view.

As I sat there on the lookout, a few drops of rain fell on me and my camera. I packed up and readied myself for the long walk down and back to my cark. It was very slow going walking over the volcanic boulders. On the way back down I followed the ridge rather walk down the steep slope into the creek. The clouds above began to turn orange as I continued my gradual descent, over rocks, and around fallen logs. I could see the line of trees along the creek I needed to reach, and the far off speck of my car, which was comforting. Four white goats ran away as I approached them. There were lots of goat scats in the area. I wonder if they are threatening the Phebalium?

The light was starting to get dim. If I could make it to creek before dark I knew I would be OK. I was very tired and looking forward to reach the car. My arms were sore and scratched by hanging branches, perhaps I was a little bit sunburnt too. The slope was steep, and working over and around rocks and logs and through dead branches took time. I reached a tall fence, fortunately it was pushed over a tree a few metres away where I could walk through it. Finally I reached the creek and felt immediate relief. I followed the rocks and walked above the creek bank in the almost dark. Then I exited the trees and walked the few hundred metres to my car.

I reached my car right on dark, and took a long drink from my water bottle. The husband of the nursery owner came over in his 4WD to see if I was OK, they were a little bit worried to make sure I made it out in one piece. I was glad to be heading back to Tenterfield. It was a bit disappointing not to re-locate the Phebalium, but nevertheless I had a great day’s adventure out in the bush.