February
Williams Hill and Pearly Brook
Mike Douglas led us on the walk to Williams Hill Stringy Gum Track, which winds through part of the Mt Horror State Forest. After lunch, which was eaten on the rocky bank of Pearly Brook, we walked along a remnant of the Forester-to-Bridport Tramway. From 1913 to 1925 Steam engines hauled sawn timber for shipment to Melbourne on this 30-km, 76-cm gauge line. This walk took us to the confluence of Pearly Brook and the Forester River.
April
Merthyr Park, Lilydale Falls, and train tunnel
Merthyr Park, is a 48 hectare bushland reserve near Lilydale. Rehabilitation of the area has resulted in many native species of birds, mammals and reptiles inhabiting the newly-restored bushland. Predominant plant species are now all natives. These include Prickly Beauty (Pultenaea juniperena), She Oak (Allocasurania verticillata), Black Peppermint (Eucalyptus amigdalina) and the Sag (Lomandra longifolia). There are walks to two waterfalls, with magnificent specimens of Eucalyptus regnans along the way.
The tunnel, near Lebrina, was completed in 1888. An impressive structure, approximately 800 m in length.
May
Visit to Springfield Hatcheries
Springfield Hatcheries is one of three places in Tasmania where brood stock of Atlantic Salmon are held, their eggs stripped, the young produced, grown and distributed to aquaculture ‘farms’ in various places in Tasmania and throughout the world. They have a permit to monitor the wellbeing of Astacopsis gouldi—the largest freshwater crayfish in the world.
September
A walk to Cube Rock
Cube Rock is a well-known monolith perched atop Windy Ridge on the Mt Cameron Range. This range consists of granitoid rocks of Devonian age. These rocks are part of the Blue Tier Batholith, a massive granitoid intrusion at depth that occurred about 380 million years ago, and has since been exposed by erosion of the covering sediments. Cube Rock is a remnant of a much larger expanse of fractured rock.
October
Binalong Bay
Led by botanist Roy Skabo, we looked for wildflowers near Binalong Bay in the morning, then took a longer walk of about 5 km at nearby Doctors Peak Reserve in the afternoon.
December
Groom River Trail – Blue Tier
We joined Lesley Nicklason on a walk that starts at Crystal Hill, drops to the Groom River and follows it to join the Big Tree Track.This area is a treasure trove of unusual plant species, old mining relics, the pristine Groom River and giant Eucalyptus regnans trees. Lesley took us to the ‘Big Tree’—a magnificent swamp gum that has a chest-high girth of 19.4 metres, and is believed to be the widest tree in Australia.
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