The Paperbark Forest is one of my favourite spots on the Peninsula. It's official name is the Everglades Lagoon Wetland, because it's next to the Everglades golf course.
The area of Woy Woy South the forest and the golf course are in was pretty boggy and swampy before it was developed for housing and golf. The streets on the northern side of the golf course are named Florida Avenue, Miami Avenue and Everglades Crescent, the street trees are paperbarks and the lanes behind the houses are ditches instead of the usual drive-able lanes.
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Strange red flowers on a large bush on the edge of the forest.
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The golf course visible through the thin end of the forest. It was a warm clear day and the golfers were puttering about happily and stopping for a yack in the shade of the trees.
The trees on the golf course are mainly paperbarks and banksias, plus some pines up the Veron Road end.
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Yellow whatsit bush. Broom, I think someone said last week.
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Wee blue flowers on the forest floor. Don't think they're native.
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Sheets of paperbark bark slowly peel from the trees, hanging down all through the forest.
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The bark is layers and layers of sheets as thin as onion skin with string strips between them.
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Into the forest, with the glint of the lagoon visible through the trees.
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The lagoon after La Nina's rain. Still and silent, but teeming with life. A lovely green jewel in a tiny hidden forest.
Other than the occasional cry of victory or despair from the golf course, it's quiet and still and only the sound of a bird slowly wading and the breeze in the crowns of the trees can be heard.
Paperbark Forest in 2005
Sydney & Kormoran found
Australia's great wartime mystery solved. The wrecks of the German warship Kormoran and HMAS Sydney have been found at last, off the coast of Western Australia. It's been 66 years snce all those boys, ours and theirs, were lost.
Kormoran on Wiki (Deutsch)
Sydney on Wiki
HMAS Sydney II and the Kormoran
HMAS Sydney website
SMH Faces of the lost found at last - SMH slideshow of the men who went down on her*
Video
Remembering life on board HMAS Sydney II
HMAS Sydney piped home in Geraldton
Historic protection for HMAS Sydney, Kormoran
* Who were aboard her when she sunk! What filthy minds you buggers have.
5 comments:
nice pics of the lagoon , I was thinking of donning the waders and gettin some pics in there - saves me getting wet lol .Back in the 70's those ponds wear near crystal clear and made good swimming holes and they also had these tiny turtles in them that we'd scoop up and sell the the local aquarium shop , dunno if they were native to the area , its a shame how all the lagoons were filled in here especially Illuka Lagoon and the Umina creek system which is basically a drain now - you could catch freshwater bass there at one stage
Thank yer. And ta for the info.
Had no idea they were deep enough for swimming. They look pretty shallow now and a bit gummed up with stuff.
Bass! That's quite different from now. All I've seen are wee fish about whitebait size. And they reckon the Brisbane Water's fish stock is tight down as well. Bummer.
Michael sent me a map that shows all the lagoons and creeks before they were fiddled with. Hadn't realised before how extensive the water system was on the Peninsula.
Yeh the old lagoons must have been magic back before Mr Webb n co , the Everglades Lagoon is a freshwater lagoon filled by the artesian aquifer under the Peninsula , it used to drain out via a small creek that runs between the houses next to the golf course and into Woy Woy Bay.
Commercial fishing was banned in the Broadwater in 1907 - didn't take us long to stuff that up !
Rang the Lands Dept the other day it seems they have an aerial photo of the Peninsula taken in 1954 , hopefully the runway will be still visible and other stuff , soon as I can get down there to verify it I'll get a copy for the website
Happy Eggfest !
the yellow whatsit is a cassia -
probably Senna pendula which is an introduced noxious weed, there is also a very similar native cassia Senna acclinis which is endangered, but I think yours is the common noxious one, it spreads very fast.
The little blue flower is the native wandering jew, Commelina cyanea
dunno about the red flower, it's very familiar but can't put a name to it, might be an escapee from someone's garden
have a nice ostara and don't OD on the chocolate wombats VBG
Steve: it used to drain out via a small creek that runs between the houses next to the golf course and into Woy Woy Bay
I think I see where. On the old map Michael sent me the creek
joins up with a short creek coming from the golf course lagoons. That's the same drain/creek that, on the current maps, starts at Veron Road, goes down behind Jimba Close, crosses under Nambucca Drive, through the reserve there and under the railway line into the bay. Looks like it's partly visible on this old aerial photo.
aerial photo of the Peninsula taken in 1954
That would be excellent! Got me fingers crossed for you.
Erica, thank yer kindly for the flora info. I'm particulalry pleased to know that wee blue flower isn't an import. I like it.
don't OD on the chocolate wombats
Too late :(
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