Wildflowers of Barkers Creek

This collection of flora photos will be added to as we go along … season by season. Each Spring when we visit one of our Bushland Reserves, the Heritage Diggings Park or even along Barkers Creek we will photograph native flowers to add to the site.

Spring of 2020 has been the wettest since 2010 and as a result the wildflowers have been extraordinary. In October this year we invited members to wander around their properties and photograph any wildflowers they discovered. As a result, this year’s update of our Local Flora includes, not only photos from the Walmer and Harcourt Bushland Reserves by Mick Evans (ME) and Daryl Colless (DC), but also members properties; Lois Denham (LD), Leah Mow-Yoffee (LMY) and Leonie Auhl (LA). We hope you enjoy… and take time to check out Mick’s ‘Twisted, Tortured and Coppiced’ reflection as well.

If you take a photo of a local wildflower in one of Barkers Creek work areas, and send it to us with the date, location and your name and you may end up one of the ‘star’ contributors on our website.

Click on each image below to zoom in for a closer look at the photos.

Previously, on the 17 September 2017 we extended an invitation to the Harcourt Valley Landcare group and other members of the Mt Alexander community to come and explore the Bushland Reserve (off Peelers Rd) that we have been working on for the past five years. It was a gorgeous spring morning and so many of the native plants were on show. We have added a selection of these photos for you to look at. A big thank you goes to Robyn from Harcourt Valley Landcare Group for taking photos and also to Bonnie for providing the identification.

Click on each image below to zoom in for a closer look at the photos.

Bushland Birds of Barkers Creek

Yellow Thornbill bird

One of the wonderful things about restoring the local environment is seeing the return of the birds.

My place, West of the Creek, like many other ‘bush’ blocks in Barkers Creek, a little more than a quarter of a century ago was farming land, (largely) denuded of trees and shrubs and native grasses. Go East of the Creek, and History tells us that once Gold was discovered up Specimen Gully Rd one and a half centuries ago, the entire area was Dug up, Cut down… and then Dumped on.

As you will read elsewhere on our Website, Barkers Creek is now a ‘growing’ and ‘passionate’ community of people with many of us committed to restoring the Environment.

So, across the area with selective indigenous plantings the transformation is quite incredible. This is happening on many of the properties of our members, as well as the various Reserves and the Creek where our group is working. By doing this we’re creating links across the landscape for our native birds and animals. Not to mention the sheer beauty we get to enjoy.

Another, absolutely wonderful thing about Barkers Creek Landcare is welcoming new members. Early in 2020 Mick & Christine joined BCL&WG, and at our first working bee (within Covid gathering guidelines) Mick conveyed that his ‘passion’ was photography’… particularly ‘Local Birds’… and that he had a set of about 40 – all taken in the Natural Features Bushland Reserve (35.5 Ha b/t Peelers & Adams Roads).

By the end of the working bee it was decided to revamp this page to call it – Bushland Birds of Barkers Creek.

We hope you enjoy Mick Evans photos and get inspired in choosing what to plant and maybe even do a bit more bird watching … or join our Group.

This Bushland Reserve, since 2012, has been a major focus for our group – removing weeds (Broom; Gorse; Blackberry; Bridal Creeper; etc, and re-planting with nearly 1000 ‘Native’ species (see project page).

N.B. – A very big ‘thank-you’ goes to Garry Cheers for providing our initial set of photos.

Click on each image below to zoom in for a closer look at the photos.

Top 10 Weeds

Blackberry weeds on White Gum Road

The bottom line is the weeds in our area are probably no different to everywhere else across Victoria and Australia. We have included some photos below, that may assist in identifying which weeds are on your property. 

When it comes to ‘best practice’ treatment there are many websites that will give you all the information you’ll need. The A-Z of Weeds on the Agriculture Victoria website is a great starting point.

For us it is simply a matter of perseverance … little by little we are getting on top of these weeds in our area. We hope you’ll see in the ‘before and after’ photos of our various Landcare projects, the difference we are making through this approach. The key thing to remember is follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. This is what we do at each of our primary sites. We go back each year and pull out Broom, spray the Blackberry and Bridal Creeper, cut & paint the Gorse etc, etc, etc.

Click on each image below to zoom in for a closer look at the photos.