August still! Phillip Island Scenic Estate Conservation Reserve

This doesn’t look like much when you approach it but it is precious and fragile land reclaimed after being used variously as a dairy farm, a housing subdivision, rubbish dump etc. It is now protected and the resilient indigenous flora came back of its own accord even though the land had been completely cleared and sown with pasture crops. 

Swamp scrub mainly Swamp Paperbark are well adapted to the brackish nature of the basin left here after sea levels fell over 100,000 years ago.

Lindsay spotted a brown ball on a side path from where we were walking - it was an echidna! We snuck up slowly and quietly to get a closer look. Usually they roll into a tight ball if you disturb them and burrow into the bush but this little guy simply stuck his head into the grass - “I can’t see you, you can’t see me”. But he got curious and after a little while he took a shy look to see what manner of creature we were. What a beautiful little face!  Neither of us had seen an echidna up so close 

Long- we were about 1.5 metre away, so it was a special experience. 

There was a large wetlands area with plonking frog calls and many aquatic plants. The grasslands are mainly coast tussock with other grass species including this coast saw-sedge. They say there are orchids in the Reserve but we didn’t see any perhaps because we weren’t looking  - you really have to look for orchids. 

Further along the trail we came to the shoreline of Western Port bay. A large part of this vast water way is designated as a Ramsar site for the protection of migratory wading birds. Its fringe of mudflats, rocky outcrops and pools, seagrass meadows, mangroves, salt marshes are all important in providing habitats for many different species of marine life as well as birds and are an essential stopping point for thousands of migratory water birds. 

Old Moonah trees (Melaleuca lanceolata) are a long-lived species, many of the larger ones are believed to be over 200 years old and here before Europeans settlers arrived. They have been twisted and sculpted by time and many are threatened along this cliff edge because of coastal erosion. As a result there is a program of replanting away from the cliff edges and also of trying to slow the erosion of the cliffs by planting more mangroves. 

There are many species of native trees in the reserve. This is a Sticky Hop-bush - the leaves are sticky. 

Spiky hedge wattle have gorgeous bright yellow flowers but as the name suggests there are loads of spikes to catch the unwary.