Category Archives: North Eastern Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club

2012

February

Mt Horror with Sean Blake

Mt Horror features in the landscape from just about anywhere in the North East. Its shape from a distance isn’t unusual, but it did play a significant role in the early story of the timber industry of the North East. It is little-known that the southern face of the mountain is a relict of rainforest refugia.

March

Black Sugar-loaf, Birralee

Birds: Button quail, yellow-throated honeyeaters and golden whistlers. Slime moulds: In summer they appear on rotting logs and stumps. They are moist and quite often brightly coloured. They have names like ‘dog vomit’, ‘scrambled egg’, ‘wolf’s milk’ and one in Mexico is called ‘moon’s excrement’.

April

Mt Stronach

May

Wasterhouse Conservation Area lead by Mike Douglas

From the top of Hardwickes Hill we had a birds-eye view of the reserve and associated features such as Waterhouse Island. The linear Pleistocene dunes formed during the last glacial advance, at its peak 20 000 years ago, are clearly discernable – sea level was 120 metres lower, and much of Bass Strait was a cool windy desert. The main objective of the day was to look at salt resistant plants (halophytes) on the shore between Herbies Landing and Waterhouse Point. Most of these plants belong to the saltbush family, Chenopodiaceae, and the pigface family, Aizoceae.

June

Mt Scott

July

Waterhouse

September

In the Fingal Valley

At Evercreech Reserve are the giant Eucalyptus regnans. Named “regnans” as a reference to the Latin “regnum” meaning kingship, these giants are the tallest tree species in Australia. They are referred to commonly as the giant ash. Also impressive for their height were the Mathinna Falls, our next stop. After short drive we made our assault on Mt. Young.

October

Federation weekend, Mt Cameron and Cape Portland

November

Cascade River

Exploring the Chinese history in the area between the Cascade Dam and Mt Paris Dam

2014

February

Vale of Belvoir

The Tas. Land Conserv-ancy held an open day for exploring the Vale of Belvoir with TLC staff and expert supporters as guides.
The Vale of Belvoir is a large open limestone valley located about 15 km NNW of Cradle Mountain, in the lee of the Black Bluff Range. It is about 10 km long by 2 km wide, trends NE-SW, and has an open grassy floor flanked by strips of ancient rainforest and eucalypt forest.

March

Shoreline monitoring, Weymouth

We chose a site for counting and measuring near a launching ramp at Weymouth. It consisted of rocks. It looked unlikely. But it was actually an extremely rich and diverse area: Rosette barnacles, common sea urchins, eleven-armed seastar, sea apple, decorator crab, hairy-stone crab, even a blue-ringed octopus.

September

Scottsdale – Burrowing crayfish

We celebrated National Threatened Species Day with a visit to the habitat of the Scottsdale Burrowing Crayfish, at Northeast Park (Scottsdale) then on the Old Waterhouse Road

October

Searching for the stag beetle, Goshen

Ian and Kim Matthews have a bushland block at Goshen, north-west of St Helens. In October 2014 they hosted our club for a fascinating day during which we heard the story of the discovery of this rare stag beetle, met the widow of George Bornemissza, after whom the beetle is named, and were guided by Mike Bouffard on our search to find a live specimen

November

Exploring Anson’s Bay

We ambled along Jenny Bicanic’s favourite paths looking for orchids, listening for birds.

December

Bird watching, Greens Beach

The December activity involved bird-watching on the property of Don and Barbara Pitt, 340 hectares at Friend Point, near Green’s Beach, where the Tamar River meets Bass Strait.

The complete list of birds is here

2019

February

Beach walk to Five Mile Bluff rock platform

This rock platform is little known since it doesn’t have road access. During the walk, the keen naturalists identified seven species of seaweed. Two species of Boobyalla were also observed.

March

Mutual to Moorina

A gentle 5km walk along the banks of the beautiful Ringarooma River. We passed some fine stands of myrtle, blackwoods, man ferns, mother shield ferns and kangaroo fern. Also native edible fruiting plants – the native currant, raspberry, cherry, and purple appleberry.

April

A leisurely look at three gardens in the Bridport area which have been managed as habitats for wildlife.

May

Fungi Foray, Skemps, Myrtle Bank

The Launceston Field Naturalists Club owns and operates the John Skemp Field Centre. It is situated on approximately 60 hectares (148 acres) of wide open spaces, wet and dry sclerophyll forest, fern gullies and ponds on Skemp Creek. A number of nature trails have been developed over the whole property.

June

A 12 km walk along the North East Rail Trail from Kamona Station to Tonganah.

There were fungi, there were orchids and such a richness of vegetation. Facing north, tall trees- Eucalyptus obliqua. At the foot of embankments plants that thrived in wetter conditions. Excitement when we found colonies of Mosquito orchids – Acianthus pusillus, and the fringed helmet orchid – Corybas fimbriatus.

September

Cape Portland

Our tour of Cape Portland, which now hosts the Musselroe Wind Farm, highlighted the natural features of the Cape and the efforts of the management team to manage and enhance the natural resources there.

October

Federation of Tasmanian Field Naturalists weekend

In October it was the North East Field Naturalists turn to welcome members of other Tasmanian field naturalists clubs for the biennial weekend get-together. We hosted visitors in our homes, provided a meal on the Saturday night and organised two walks.

Read more about the weekend here. And see photos here

November

Scamander : A Day with Todd
Todd Dudley focused on the Skyline Tier project. We visited a plantation site that had been logged, exhibiting the first step back to native forest. We looked at some regeneration sites to see progress after burning and weeding, and heard about the detrimental effects of mono-culture associated with plantations.

December

Exploring Musselroe Bay.
We explored the coastal area east of the settlement, and the tracks along the edge of the Musselroe River.

2018

February

Constable Creek wade and walk – St Helens.

A warm watery stroll up the creek, where many ferns were identified, and a variety of other vegetation including dogwood, silver wattle, bulloak and native cherry. A Tasmanian water spider, Megadolomedesjohndouglasi, was also seen.

March

Explore Scamander River

We looked at the river’s catchment characteristics, geomorphology and social history.

April

Dorset Dredge – Gladstone

A walk through the bush to this relic of mining history. Historians and Geologists told the story.

Click here for an article from the NE Advertiser in 1950

May

Scott Bell’s devil enclosure

Scott told us how the project has progressed. Steve Cronin shared some information on many different habitat types in the area. A bonus was the chance to see a carbonised piece of pine between 20 and 23 million years old revealed by an excavator whilst digging a dam.

June

Brid River Reserve at Duncraggen Hill

A walk through a narrow Crown river reserve extending along the Brid River for 3.5 Kms. It is surrounded by State forest, and is a dry-to damp sclerophyll forest dominated by stringy bark and black perppermint, with a scattering of fine old whitegums.

September

Fern Foray, Little Chook bike trail, Weldborough

The Little Chook mountain bike trail, arguably one of the most beautiful trails in the Blue Derby network. The easy grade 6 km circuit walk, wending through a myrtle forest, is a hotspot for ferns.

October

Mt William National Park – Boulder Point

Mt William rises above a plain which is near the coast and contains heathland vegetation, grass trees (Xanthorrhoea) and black peppermint (Eucalyptus amygdalina). Three plants of special interest were observed on this walk. Dockrillia striolata (streaked rock orchid), Hibbertia aspera (rough guinea flower) and Pterostylis dubia (blue tongued orchid). A family of five or six fledgling dusky woodswallows (Artamus cyanopterus) was also seen.

November

A walk up Mount Maurice

Climbing to an altitude of 1100 metres, we saw three main types of forest: wet sclerophyll (mainly Eucalyptus delegatensis, or whitetop), mixed forest (whitetops with a predominantly myrtle understorey), and rainforest. At the summit, with it’s 360 degree view, was more flora, including Richea scoparia, a prickly plant endemic to Tasmania.

December

Diddleum Plains

The track, which started at East Diddleum, followed the route which the Camden irrigation pipeline now takes, and we were disappointed to realise that soon many beautiful manfern glades, myrtles and sassafras will have to be cleared to make way for the pipeline. The shady manfern gullies give way to the radiata pine forest, then the track meanders through mature native forest, An interesting discovery was a largeforest land snail, Anoglypta launcestonensis.

2017

February

Mount Stronach

A steep climb to the summit, mainly through a dry to damp sclerophyll forest dominated by stringybarks, black peppermints and white gums. There was a wide variety of understorey plants including currantwood (also called goldeywood), blanket leaf, native olive, prickly box, coffee berry, handsome flatpea, cheesewood, native pepper, guitar plant, prickly beauty and bracken.

March

Searching for the Crusader Beetle, Bellingham

Simon Fearn, a scientist working for the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG), has discovered a breeding population of the Crusader beetle, which has not previously been seen in Tasmania, at Beechford, on the NE coast. It was the aim of this outing to see if the population had spread further east.

April

Blue Tier, Australia Hill Walk

The 4 km walk begins at Poimena and climbs at first through regenerating rainforest and past the abanadonned Summit Mine. Noted were many myrtles, native peppers, woolly teatrees, waratahs, mountain currants and celery-top pines. This area has special significance to Aboriginal Tasmanians because of the existence of cupules that appear to have been hollowed out of the granite, possibly over 1000 years ago.

May

Ralph Falls and Cash’s Gorge Circuit

An easy, relaxed walk that involved viewing the 90-metre drop of Ralph Falls from the Norm Brown Lookout, then continuing through the temperate rainforest to Cash’s Gorge and finally back to the car park along the moorland boardwalk.

June

A visit to the Queen Victoria Museum with Simon Fearn

A fantastic opportunity to see the natural history collection of the QVMAG.

September

Springfield

16 intrepid members and guests descended upon a lone, unsuspecting and endangered slender tree fern (Cyathea cunninghamii). This 8m tree fern is on the edge of a paddock at Springfield and is one of only about 200 known specimens in 15 locations around the state.

October

Exploring Ansons Bay and Policeman’s Point

With a focus on orchids, this day offered much, much more than a mere bush walk as we took advantage of Jenny Bicanic’s vast knowledge of the local area.

November

Boobyalla River Circuit

A walk through the river surrounds near Little Mt Horror—an infrequently visited area within the Payanna State Forest, with a patchwork of swamp forest and other types of riverine forest. This includes 96 hectares of Eucalytus ovata (swampgum) and E. obliqua (stringybark) that are highly significant for their conservation value.

December

The secretive birds at, and invertebrates in, Big Waterhouse Lake

Liz Znidersic told us about her project monitoring ten sites in the Waterhouse area with bioacoustic recording.

Among the many invertebrates we found were flatworms, water mites, three types of snails, adult diving beetles, and the larvae of beetles, midges, and dragonflies. There were also freshwater clams, seed shrimps, shrimps, scuds, backswimmers, and creeping water bugs

2015

March

Salt marsh exploration – Little Musselroe Bay

This often forgotten and undervalued habitat has been the subject of recent studies. NRM North and UTAS have identified and mapped Tasmanian Saltmarshes and published their findings. A walk-and-talk in the morning, then some shoreline monitoring after lunch.

April

Sunflats Road to Platts Lookout – Blue Tier

A downhill walk, of 5–6 km on a 4WD track, looking for native berries. Noted were Snowberry (Gaultheria hispida), Native pepperberry (Tasmannia lanceolota), Climbing blueberry (Billardiera longiflora) and Heart berry (Aristotelia penduncularis)

May

Blackboy Plains overhangs – Mt Victoria area

A fascinating day exploring these overhangs which were used for shelter 1600 years BPE. Some of the caves are 10 metres high and extending 10-15 metres into the cliff.

June

Waterhouse Conservation Area

A tour of the country inland from Blizzard’s Landing.The coastal heath on the dunes is dominated by windpruned dwarf oaks (Allocasuarina monilifera), silver banksia (Banksia marginata), sweet-scented wattle (Acacia suaveolens) and various guinea flowers, particularly the silky guinea flower, Hibbertia sericea.

September

Rail trail from Scottsdale to Ling Siding

The trail meanders through farming countryside to the east of Scottsdale. Across wet gullies dotted with tree ferns; through numerous cuttings, and a wet area with buttongrass and Melaleuca gibbosa.

October

Mossing around at Paradise Plains

A sub-alpine area behind Ringarooma. Sean Blake led us on three short walks—to a
stand of Eucalyptus delegatensis (white-topped stringybark); into an open grassland area that was used for cattle grazing a century or so ago and is now undergoing
rapid transition; and through a rainforest that is also undergoing transition, albeit at a much slower rate.

November

Threatened plants

We joined some members of the Threatened Plants Tasmania group who were visiting the Bridport area to survey threatened species. Among the species surveyed were Hibbertia virgata, Pultenaea sericea and Xanthorrhoea bracteata.

December

Blue Derby Field Nats style

Revel Munro showed us the historical and natural elements of some of the new trails – the “Blue Derby” Mountain Bike Trails.

2016

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.

Examiner 1925 article about the tramway

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.