Gulpa revegetation site (1995)
Approximately two hectares of NSW Forests' land, about 16 kilometres south of Deniliquin

27 November 2008

The old house at Gulpa where forestry foremen once lived had long been removed. The site lay idle so I suggested to David Leslie, who worked for NSW Forests in Deniliquin at the time, that we revegetate it to create a feeding area for superb parrots, which breed in Gulpa Island State Forest.

There were about 20 established trees in the plot of which five were natural to the area. These being three grey box, two of which were mature, and two white cypress pine. The rest, planted around the old house site, were mainly dwarf sugar gums, currajongs and a couple of introduced pines. There were also two mature boree trees, which were probably planted.

The majority of the paddock is loamy soil and originally would have been covered in pine and grey box with an acacia understorey. The revegetation project aims to restore that habitat with as much integrity as possible and to that end, I collect the seed locally and as close as possible to the site.

 We did our first planting in 1995 and have planted a few hundred trees and shrubs each year since, except for a couple of extreme drought years.

On several occasions in the early years the whole paddock was smothered by Patterson’s curse, wild oats and barley grass. We lost copious plants before realising the importance of spraying the weeds with herbicide — it is the single most important thing to do before planting. Spraying lines about a metre wide a month or two prior to planting will kil the weeds and create a layer of mulch when the weeds die, conserving moisture and creating a barrier for new weeds.

With the assistance of NSW Forests we sprayed the whole paddock on five occasions, which allowed the trees and shrubs to get a go on. The first time we sprayed we put garbage bins over the plants and used a boom spray on a quad bike — an exercise in total hell! Thereafter the plants were bigger and we used hand sprayguns. On another occasion I used a whipper-snipper to cut down metre high wild oats over a third of the site.

Because of the herbicide treatments and the ongoing drought, there are few weeds on that site now. Steve Seymour and I have watered plants through summers with a fire cart burrowed from Terry Murphy, a neighbour; however, the drought takes its toll. My strategy is to plant a lot and hope some will survive.

The not insubstantial time and effort put into this one small paddock is starting to reap rewards. About 20 or so superb parrots used the site this spring, feeding on green seedpods of wedge-leaved hopbush, western black wattle and golden wattle. Of late, there have been western gerygones and brown-headed honeyeaters. Quite regularly we have noisy and little friarbirds, white-plumed and singing honeyeaters, weebills, yellow-rumped, chestnut-rumped and yellow thornbills, superb fairywren, common bronzewing and yellow rosella.

Having established at least three species of mistletoe in the paddock, we now see mistletoebird regularly.

Emus with their fondness for ruby saltbush and Eremophila berries are often there, disseminating seeds about.

There is great regeneration of grey box and river redgum at the rear of the paddock, which runs down onto the floodplain of the Gulpa Creek and the river redgum forests.

Butterflies and insects are attracted to the flowering plants and so far spotted jezabel, satin azure, amethyst hairstreak, two-spotted line blue, saltbush blue, common grassblue and chequered copper butterflies have been recorded.

Thirteen years since the first plantings, it's fair to say I am rather pleased with this paddock.

Philip Maher
27 November 2008

Wanganella sandhill

Michael Mullins, managing ranger with the Rural Lands Protection Board (RLPB), in conjunction with Greening Australia’s Carl Charter, initiated the Wanganella sandhill project in 2001. The five-hectare site is on the western side of the highway about 43 kilometres north of Deniliquin. The sandhill was part of the travelling stock route between Deniliquin and Hay.

Government funding was obtained to fence off the site and pay RLPB staff for labour in the first few years.

This site has proved the most difficult of the four sites being documented. The area has been in almost continuous drought since we started and it is a constant challenge to keep plants alive on a sandhill in those conditions.

The area was pretty much denuded with just a couple of Eremophila longifolia and a dead hopbush remaining. The sandhill must have been cleared of timber in very early times as no one can recall trees on the sandhill, although there are plenty of pine stumps to attest to their historical presence.

In the first three years we put in about a thousand plants per year and did not have a lot to show for our efforts. We lost many plants in the severe drought of 2002. Kangaroos added to the carnage by pulling up the protective milk cartons, which had been anchored with bamboo stakes.  A plague of rabbits moved in and wrought havoc …

Poor weed control proved I was a slow learner and cost us many thousands of plants. With weeds under control from spraying with herbicides, we saw a higher success rate. By then funding had run out but we ploughed on.

We have planted about a thousand plants most years and lost about three-quarters of them. Despite the losses there is now a reasonable cover of trees and shrubs on the sandhill. Only about six hundred plants went in this year, after having lost about a thousand — nearly the whole lot — the previous year. However, of this year’s plantings we have only lost about a third so far.

There has been a reasonable rainfall at Wanganella in November 08 and the plants, both new and old, are sending out new growth. We have finally eliminated the rabbits and while the kangaroos are still a problem they should disperse now that it has rained.

Singing honeyeaters and willy wagtails are there most of the time. Some species have been there all along, such as white-fronted chat, Australian pipit and white-winged fairywren. Periodically, stubble quail and little buttonquail visit but they too are not associated with the plantings. Now that some of the trees are getting up a bit some birds are starting to move in. Last week yellow-throated miners fed briefly in some of the larger emubushes. Hopefully spiny-cheeked and black honeyeaters will not be too far away.

There is more or less a continuous corridor of nitre goosefoot and dillionbush with a scattering of boree and native willow between the Wanganella sandhill and another vegetated sandhill about a kilometre away.

The trees that are doing the best so far are emubush, native willow, Acacia victoriae, Acacia brachybotra and sugarwood. There are quite a few cypress pine surviving but they are painfully slow growers.

As with the Gulpa paddock, to protect the integrity of sandhill site, I collect seeds from the Wanganella and Booroorban areas.

Members of the Wanganella community have generously given their time to assist in planting, particularly John, Robert, and David Nevinson who have also supplied, at times, the much needed water cart. Steve Seymour and Tom Wheller of Deniliquin have also been giving with their time. Michael Mullins continues to provide invaluable support to this sandhill project and Carl Charter, while he was in the district, was also of great help.

Philip Maher
27 November 2008

Monimail revegetation site (2002)
About 30 kilometres north of Deniliquin

Michael Mullins in 2001 had fenced off two hectares of travelling stock route (TSR) in the area known as the Monimail to protect some Acacia victoriae that had been located on the site a year or so before.
Driving home from the Wanganella sandhill site one day I put it to Mick that we plant up the Monimail enclosure; he thought it a good idea and in 2002 we started planting.

The site, on a loamy ridge, is situated near the old Cobb & Co changing station where the horses were changed on the Deniliquin to Hay route in the early days of European settlement.

Of the three areas being revegetated, the Monimail contained the most native vegetation at the start of the project. There were four large clumps of hooked needlewood comprising mature trees surrounded by dense root suckers; a half-dozen or so borees and Acacia victoriae scattered about, although some of the latter have since succumbed to drought; and a lone bull oak up the northern end of the enclosure. A small amount of thorny saltbush was growing under some of the trees, which has greatly increased of its own accord since the site was fenced; and some cottonbush plants were dotted across the area.The eroded claypans along the ridge suggested a history of heavy grazing and pine stumps are evidence of early clearing.

In 2002 we started planting, with just a few hundred plants in the first year and six to eight hundred in subsequent years. Having taken the lesson on weed control to heart we had a much greater success rate than in the early days of the Gulpa and Wanganella sandhill sites. Plus it is easier to establish trees on loam than on sand as loam holds the moisture better. Hundreds of trees and shrubs are now established here although lack of rainfall over the last few years has slowed growth.

In 2007 Mick arranged some direct seeding to be done here and at Wanganella sandhill. Although the direct seeding pretty much failed at Wanganella there was some success at the Monimail site with a few Acacias coming on well, mainly western black and sandhill wattles.

Lots of emubushes have been planted on the ridge to bring in the honeyeaters. Spiny-cheeked and singing honeyeaters are near enough to resident. Striped honeyeaters are frequently there. It has been easier to attract birds to this site because of the pre-existing vegetation and the close proximity (c500 m) to good stands of boree and black box outside the enclosure.

While we are planting in the winter, we see superb parrots fly back and forth between the boree and the black box but so far have not seen them feed in the enclosure. A group of variegated fairywrens has been the most interesting species to turn up. They have been living in the largest clump of hooked needlewoods for over twelve months and I believe they bred there this spring.

Formerly, variegated fairywrens were only found north of the Billabong Creek in the thick lignum and goosefoot swamps but this habitat has been pretty much bone dry since the early 1990s, pushing the species south. This species on this site is the furthest south I have recorded them on the Riverine Plain.

A little buttonquail has been in the enclosure in the last two weeks, no doubt attracted by the ungrazed spear grass, a favourite.

The Monimail site like the Wanganella sandhill area has received half decent rain in November.

Philip Maher
28 November 2008

Nomenclature follows Plants of Western New South Wales (1981), Cunningham, G.M., Mulham, W.E., Milthorpe, P.L. & Leigh, J.H.

Note that several Latin names have changed since this authoritative work was first published.