Sunday April 13

Remarkably another week has whisked by and we have, by recent standards, come quite a distance as I am now reporting in from Jurien Bay, some 260km north of Perth.

Last Monday saw us in Bunbury to catch up with Tom Bell and those of you who are Balnarring-ites will know that he is the older son of Maureen & Mick Bell and was at school with Kate. Was terrific to find out what Tom has been up to – namely working for the past couple of years for Hot FM, a Bunbury-based radio station which broadcasts around the whole of the south-west. Lucky we arrived this week though, as he is off back to Victoria tomorrow to embark on the next stage of his life.

Monday and Tuesday nights saw us camped at Yalgorup National Park. This park was established in the 1970s to protect the ten coastal lakes, swamps and Tuart woodland between Mandurah and Myalup Beach. More beautiful Peppermints and grass trees, along with some of the few Tuarts (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) remaining after the exploitative zeal of the early colonists. There is now only 2,000 hectares of tall Tuart left in WA.

Martins Tank Lake, which we were camped next to. Currently three times
more saline than the sea.

A family of endangered Hooded Plovers, which was feeding on the edge of the lake.
One of the species which frequently nests on beaches and is vulnerable to 4x4
vehicles and dogs

Next destination was Dwellingup, a little east of Mandurah, where we were keen to visit the Forest Heritage Centre and see some Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest. The Heritage Centre was very interesting and we did see a lot of Jarrah, although most of it appeared to be regrowth and Lane Poole Conservation Reserve, on the Murray River, was a somewhat disappointing camp site. Still – it has to happen occasionally and until you visit these places you can do nothing else but believe the brochures and what others tell you.

Amazing eroded rocks in the Murray River. There is an absolute profusion of
 these round holes. Imagine how long it has taken for the water to do this!

Jarrahs behind some wonderful Bull Banksias

Jarrah flowers. The botanical name 'marginata' is because of the
light-coloured borders around the edges of the leaves

Thursday morning brought quite a shock as we arrived in Rockingham with its freeway and traffic lights. We hadn’t originally intended to stay here, but Murray had done some astute purchasing of fishing gear on Gumtree because his final fishing expedition with Andy had seen the locking nut on his reel fly off into the wide blue yonder and he needed something to go on with. This gear had to picked up after work, hence the trip to Rockingham.

As it turned out, this was an appropriate ‘finish’ to our time in the south-west and we were surprised how pleasant the foreshore area of the city was, despite its reputation. As always though, one night in a city is enough and on Friday we were on our way up the freeway to Ocean Drive and the beautiful Turquoise Coast.

We have spent the last two nights reacquainting ourselves with the delights of Jurien Bay and as the weather is considerably warmer, the beautiful beach has been much enjoyed.

Jurien Bay beach

I have also been reminded of the superb banksias which abound in the kwongan (shrublands) and species-rich heathlands of this Northern Sandplains area and have also been reminded of what Allan Tinker of Western Flora Caravan Park told us when we were here in 2012. Even though Spring is ‘the’ wildflower season, there will always be plants flowering, particularly some of the larger species and the photos below are a testament to this. We cannot believe that some people living in this area will clear so many of these superb species from their blocks and plant stupid things like poplars – what is going on????

Hookers Banksia (Banksia hookeriana)

Hookers Banksia

Hookers Banksia - the cone is more 'open'

Hookers Banksia

Ashby's banksia (Banksia ashbyi)
This flower was jam-packed with bees and all sorts of bugs!

Candle Banksia (Banksia attenuata) 

Candle Banksia

When we were here last we tried to find Drovers Cave National Park which is close to town, but gave up. This time I was really inspired as I wanted to find the Firewood Banksias (Banksia menziesii) which are flowering at the moment and after more than one trip up and down Jurien Road we managed to locate it. As the track in was seriously sandy, we choose to walk up and it was worth every grain of sand in the shoes – these banksias are superb, tucked in amongst the beautiful Hookers Banksias with their profusion of astounding flowers. It was a stunning visual assault – these incredible colours set against the brilliant blue sky.

Firewood Banksia
I don't think this common name suits this banksia at all. It is because of the colours -
red, yellow and white, but I think it is way too 'harsh' for such a beautiful flower

Another smaller cone

What a incredible nut the Firewood Banksia has!

I have no idea what species this is - am awaiting advice from my oracle Scott
The flower 'buds' are really spiky

No wonder May Gibbs created those Banksia Men!
I think this is a Hooker's Banksia - was so busy getting excited about its
'face' I forgot to check

On the way back to town we spied some clumps of Illyarrie (Eucalyptus erythrocorys), which grow best on the limestone hills of these areas. These small white-barked trees are almost unbelievable with their scarlet bud-caps and bright yellow flowers. I am trying to work out how I can have a go at trying to grow some of these plants at home and Murray is becoming very nervous!

Illyarrie

Even the gum nuts are impressive!

We have also discovered that Jurien Bay is the northern-most place in which Tuarts grow and there is a fine stand of these trees out at the cemetery. When we were here last I didn’t know about Tuarts, so this is a ‘new’ discovery for us. although I suspect that it is not quite as exciting for Murray as catching a big salmon! 

Tomorrow we are off to Geraldton for a couple of days as the car is booked in for a service! It is quite a strange feeling embarking on this part of our journey – almost as if we are on the ‘homeward’ stretch. Less than two weeks now until we meet Kate and Derek in Exmouth, so we are pretty excited about that. We will be in Exmouth next Monday as Murray is keen to do some more diving on the Navy Pier.

Until next time………