22 January 2014

Offset planting for Main Roads West Aust....winter 2013

July 26 wattles
By Deryn Thorpe
I took a drive from Perth to Perenjori last week, winding through Bindoon’s orange orchards and the intense green of the emerging wheatcrops.
While our agriculture showed the diversity of food growing in WA it was the beauty of the mid winter wildflowers, especially the brilliant yellow of our wattles, that captured my attention.
My drive was to check out a landcare project revegetating roadsides near Perenjori where Plantation and Landcare were planting out some 150,000 seedlings of local area native plants including hakeas, melaleucas, small eucalyptus mallees and wattles.
These seedlings, like the wildflowers by the roadside, survive only on the rain that falls from the sky and were chosen to create a relaxed yet colourful landscape that will enhance the drive through the central mid west Wheatbelt.
Wattles are one of the first plants to flower in winter and part of a big family containing about 900 species ranging from big trees to small shrubs.
They are a legume with roots that adds nitrogen to the soil and are an early coloniser of disturbed sites and post fire regeneration. Most wattles have phyllodes rather than true leaves which is an adaptation to their dry environment. They are beloved garden plants and most have fluffy yellow pom pom flowers and many have edible seed.
One of the most useful small shrubs flowering now from Ravensthorpe to Geraldton is prickly moses (Acacia pulchella), which grows 0.5m to 2m high and provides a protected habitat for birds as it has small spines along its stems.
The revegetation team’s wattles included the summer scented wattle (Acacia rostelifera), a shrub from 2m to 5m, dead finish (Acacia tetragonaphylla) a spreading, prickly shrub growing 2m to 4m tall, Acacia multispicata a dense to wispy shrub from 0.2 to 2m tall and Orange Wattle (Acacia saligna) a dense, often weeping shrub from 1.5m to 6m tall.


I’m looking forward to driving back that way late next winter when I expect the roadside to be a sea of yellow and green.

Back on deck

Over summer and the harvest period in WA things are abit quieter within the landcare industry. Once the trees are order for the following season its time to take a break.
Sailing always has been in the blood so this year I decided to sail from Albany (WA) down through the southern ocean to Sydney then we were part of the Sydney - Hobart blue water classic. Although we didnt achieve the results we wanted we finished. Then up to Brissie last week. This is all part of the clipper around the world race involving 12 70 yachts