I had read this article before and couldn't find it again to add it to the history collection until now. What I found interesting, in what is a very short snippet, were the dreams of King O'Malley. I find him to be a very interesting man. He had a grand vision for the new Canberra and as this article references and adding to his designs he also had a vision for a Pantheon in the capital of the calibre of Rome.

King O'Mally as I have discovered often expounded his visions for Canberra as if he truly was the 'king'...




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I'm getting a better idea on how to position the camera in this circumstance now. With a full set of batteries and the correct angle this burrow should be able to tell a better story next time over a longer period. Also now, if they weren't just random events, I am interested in the association wombats seem to have with foxes.


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A trip down to the South Coast mountains today at the invite of friends. I have always wanted to poke around the area because of its proximity to Reidsdale which was originally a family holding. Today was all about Lilly Pillis. My friend studies native bush foods and I never miss the opportunity to go bush walking with him when I can.

The Lilli Pilli are a tree which produce a small, round, fleshy edible fruit which contains two small seeds. There are a few different types. It's bush tucker, an Aboriginal food but was used from the earliest European contact predominantly as a fruit for jam.

Joseph Banks first recorded the tree at Botany Bay. I tried a few and found them very astringent. For want of a better word I would call them 'tart'.




The tree can grow to 30m in the wild and is classed as a rain forest species and the Buckenbowra Wilderness is a rain forest. The walk is very scenic. Rolling rain forest gullies with almost magical little waterfalls one must cross above the falls. We were about two hours slow walk into the bush when I heard the strangest noise.

The noise was repetitive and seemed to have a sort of rhythm. A tapering drumming sound that was neither wood nor rock and was simply too repetitive to be the cracking of a falling tree. The sound was very close and I literally spent 5 minutes trying to locate where the sound was coming from and then we saw it...


Down in the creek gully, 20M up a tree was a lone Gang gang Cockatoo plucking Lilli pilli fruits. The intermittent fruits the bird dropped were falling and bouncing on palm tree leaves below... a repetitious bouncing rhythm. Mystery solved. I was hoping for better photos but the one above was the best I could capture.

The rain forest, particularly along the creek gullies, is lush. The forest was living up to its name with very light showers dampening everything down. As we discovered this brought dozens of tiny leeches out of wherever they hide and onto the sides of our boots where they seemed naturally programmed to inch their way slowly upwards.

Two of us survived unscathed... my learned friend ended with a trouser leg soaked in blood.

The whole scene was simply beautiful though and untouched apart from  rampant pig diggings. Large areas uprooted killing or disturbing the understory vegetation. If the areas just off the very narrow trail were so disturbed I can only imagine how widespread the damage really is.

I also noted several trees nearly ring barked by pig-tusk scraping so there is no shortage of Boars showing off. Signage tells me there is a dog and fox problem as well.

There are dozens of walking trails in the Monga National Park but the most popular would be the Corn trail (photo map). Originally the trail was forged by mule trains or some such in the 19th century. A stunning walk though which will take 6 hours one way and a reasonable degree of fitness.

I actually think there is still a lot left to discover in our ACT parks but I still enjoy visiting different National Parks because the variety is endless.

One of the early reports on the proposal for Canberra as the Nation's Capital. Titled Canberra "an ideal site" it paints a glowing picture of Canberra. The article begins with a description of the official viewing of the Canberra area from first sight as they crossed over the top of 'Big Hill as the locals called it...

I thought it an interesting read and another to the collection. A section titled 'Mountain Romance' relates the tale of John Tennant, Canberra's first bushranger, a section 'City of Stone' discusses building materials and compares a future Canberra to Rome and finally a section called 'Automatic water' talking up the Cotter system.




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Just a quick post...

Since I have started publishing wildlife videos on this blog I have received the odd question about the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby (easy, size, colour, shape and habits) but by far more questions on what kangaroos and wallabies we have here in the ACT. I suppose I just take them all for granted but I’ll answer here as a reference I can point future questions to.

Before European settlement there were roughly 53 species of macropods (kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, pademelons and several others) in Australia. Since then six species have become extinct and a further eleven species are in a dire circumstance.

The ACT is not much different to a lot of Australia. In the ACT we had a number of those species which are now locally extinct with the most recent being the rock wallaby which was hunted relentlessly and last seen in the late 1950’s. So in answer to the question we are left with the Eastern grey kangaroo, red-necked wallaby, swamp wallaby and common wallaroo. Four species of what was perhaps quite a few more.

I have lined up our remaining species in this 1:20 video and although I included the rock wallaby as a ‘presumed’ extinct species, 50 years on, I don’t hold much hope of any surviving now.

I had set the camera out at Shanahan's Mountain on Wednesday 30th and collected it today so eleven days out. It always amazes me the consistency of red necked wallaby activity there and this is helping me learn the best heights and angles to place the camera. Its been a hit and miss affair so far.

This time around though seems to be getting close even though when I set the camera this time I thought the angle downward was too severe plus there is a play-off in capturing pictures first, then followed by video in the delay in-between each action. This time was set for 2 photos and 20 seconds of video.

Regardless the area is very rich in wallaby life and conspicuously absent of feral activity. Even the animal trails in the area show the obvious absence of pigs and I have not captured one fox or dog on camera.

I'm calling these little videos from Shanahan's the secret life of wallabies...



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Really exciting environmental work is happening at Mulligan's Flat enclosed nature reserve in Canberra's north. The ACT Government is reintroducing the Eastern bettong to the territory where it has been locally extinct for over a century.

Last year a number of bettongs were re-introduced into an enclosure in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve to form a breeding colony and etablish a backup colony for the next stage of the project. In recent days 24 more bettongs were brought from Tasmania (The animals last wild refuge) with some going to Tidbinbilla and the rest taken to the Mulligan's Flat box-gum woodlands sanctuary in what is described as the first wild-to-wild trans-location of bettongs.

Mulligans Flat reserve is a reserve of over 400 hectares secure from feral animals. The reason Bettongs became locally extinct was because of predation by the European fox, cat and wild dog. This predation would continue in our current circumstance if not for a fox, dog, cat proof enclosure...

From tamsactgov You Tube channel...

"Eastern bettongs from Tasmania are being introduced to the Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary in the ACT, as part of a joint project involving local, interstate and international partners. The translocation of bettongs is part of a woodlands restoration project at Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo nature reserves involving a partnership between the ACT Government, Australian National University's Fenner School of Environment and Society, CSIRO and James Hutton Institute in Scotland and is supported by the Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary Board of Management."


More information :

mulligansflat.org.au

Bettongs 'what's happening

The Eastern Bettong Project

Mulligan's Flat woodland reserve

The Woodland Experiment 

An article from Queensland when Bettongs were apparently numerous...



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