|
Pine Gully Nature Walk |
 |
Pine Gully Nature Walk
1. Mineral Jigsaw
Have a close look at this granite rock. Notice the different coloured minerals tightly interlocked with each other, mainly felspar (white), quartz (clear) and black mica.
You are looking at a rock which is at least 350 million years old. Like other intruded (igneous) rocks, granite cooled very slowly, producing large mineral crystals bonded together to form an extremely hard rock.
Not all forms of granite look like this. Some have a slightly different mineral content, and others look different because of exposure to rain, sun and wind over varying lengths of time. In addition, a coating of lichen often disguises the underlying rock.
 |
2. Exclusive to the Warbys
The Spur-wing Wattle (Acacia triptera) is easily recognised by its stiff, sharp-pointed 'leaves' curving out from the stem. 'Leaves' is not really the correct word to use for wattles. They are actually flattened sections of stem, called phyllodes, and have fewer stomates or pores through which leaves lose water. Any adaptation which reduces the number of pores helps to cut down the plant's water loss.
Spur-wing Wattle is usually a bush about two metres high, although some very old specimens may be taller.
This wattle does not occur anywhere else in Victoria, but it is relatively common in bush areas of central New South Wales.
 |
3. The Power of Nature
Many years ago a tiny native pine seed fell into a crack in this granite boulder. Over the years the growing tree root broke the rock, and then, when the tree fell, lifted a piece of rock, as you can now see.
 |
4. Slow but Steady
Despite its slow rate of growth, Murray Pine or White Cypress-pine (Callitris columellaris) is considered a valuable timber. Its resistance to insect attack (particularly by termites) has something to do with this. Many of these trees fell to the axe and saw to supply timber for the ceilings and walls of early settlers' homes - hence the large number of tree stumps in the Warbys.
 |
5. Introducing Red Box
In winter and spring this area is extremely damp, as the underlying bedrock hampers drainage. Red Box (Eucalyptus polyanthemos) which favours deeper, more fertile soils, has flourished here.
Given ideal conditions, Red Box can grow up to 25 metres high. Where conditions are less than ideal, stunted gnarled trees result, like the ones you see here.
An easy way to identify Red Box trees is to check the foliage. The leaves are covered with a bloom which gives a light blue-grey colour to the crown. They are also distinctly oval, or slightly pointed, especially on young trees.
 |
6. Big Blackboys
Grass-trees (or blackboys) (Xanthorrhoea spp) grow much taller in the Warby Range than anywhere else in south-east Australia. Members of the lily family, grass-trees produce a mass of cream-white flowers on a stout spike up to three metres tall. The number of spikes produced is greatly increased by a bushfire, although some plants are also killed by a fire. Up to 7000 seeds can be produced at any one time by the flowering stem.
It is estimated that the grass-tree "trunk" grows no more than 1.3 cm a year (or 1.3 m in 100 years). How old does that make some of the grass-trees you have seen in the park? On the other hand, the flower spike shoots up at the rate of 2.5 cm a day.
The thick skirts of the grass-tree provide good insulation against heat and cold. Many animals, including wallabies and kangaroos, seek this shelter, especially when a number of grass-trees are huddled together.
 |
7. Which is Which?
Red Stringybark (Eucalyptu,@ macrorhyncha) and Blakely's Red Gum (E. blakelyi) are the most common eucalypts growing on the range. It is not difficult to tell them apart. The twisted, white, smooth trunk of the red gum is quite different from the rough-barked trunk of stringybark, and the buds and fruit are also different. Extensive logging in the Warbys over the years concentrated on the stringybark, a good building timber.
Other common eucalypts on the ranges are Red Box, Yellow Box and Long-leaf Box. The older trees, with their hollow limbs, provide nesting sites for parrots, treecreepers, owlet-nightjars and bats. Old and dead trees are important in bushland ecology and are always preserved in national parks.
|
|
|
On the left is the stringy bark, and on the right are the red gum.
8. Where there's Water
If you are here in summer, you will hardly recognise the dried-out version of this normally lush green mat of rock ferns. Ferns need water to reproduce, and hence grow on damp sites. The shallow soils here, however, dry out rapidly in hot weather, and so do the fern's fronds. When rain comes again, new fronds are sent up from their underground "rhizomes". Surprisingly, the old dried up fronds can also take up water and begin to grow again. Plants which have this ability to regenerate dried-up leaves are called "resurrection plants".
Lichens and mosses grow on rocks here. Look for paint like white patches ( primary lichens) and foliose ( leafy ) lichens. Brittle and dry for much of the year, lichens and mosses grow rapidly after rain. They play a vital role in stabilizing bare ground and turning rocks into soil.
 |
9. An Attractive Scrambler
False Sarsaparilla, or Purple Coral-pea (Hardenbergia violacea), looks remarkably like a young eucalypt because of its leaf shape, but, as its common name suggests, it is actually a pea plant. A wiry scrambler, it brightens up ridge tops and hillsides in spring with its showy purple garlands of pea flowers, occasionally climbing two to three metres up tree trunks.
10. Getting Started
This gorge probably originated millions of years ago as a joint or crack in the solid granite.
Water running along this line of weakness, aided by scouring sand and gravel, has cut the rock down to its present level. Many waterfalls have formed in the other gorges which cut into the range.
Over the years, intermittent creeks have washed granite rock fragments down into the valleys, forming fertile plains.
 |
 |
Above the creek rests in two small rock pools before it cascades down the rocks on the right to the valley below.
| Wangaratta Bike Paths | Tiger Moth Joy Flights |
| Wangaratta Wineries | Grass Trees |
| Wangaratta Attractions | Bush Walks |
The Up Button takes you to the Home Page