Outing Report - Sunday, 7 November 2021, Helidon Hills

We're still at the start!!

Twenty-three members plus visitors met in Helidon for a delightful morning in the Hills. Martin Bennett, Lockyer Valley Regional Council Environmental Officer, started with botanical information from the moment our feet hit the track. Twenty minutes and two metres later everyone had not gone very far as there was so much to learn.

Seventeen Mile Rd is in peak condition at the moment and there was flora galore to inspect, identify and discuss. This area is so different to the Darling Downs due to its open eucalypt forest on sandstone. There are plants here we don't see in any other nearby locality and it has always been a favourite of the Club.

Martin pointed out particularly Little or Tiny Logania (Orianthera pusilla), a very uncommon herb in SEQ. It grows in dry sclerophyll forest often on sandstone. We notice that Martin uploaded his find to iNaturalist as soon as he got home! 

Helidon Hills is never brimming with faunal wildlife but we managed to get 12 species of birds as well as a couple of different spiders; one as yet unidentified.

Leaf Curling Araneus
shelter

Fauna 

Birds: Australian King Parrot, Brush Cuckoo, White-throated Treecreeper, Striated Pardalote, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Eastern Whipbird, Cicadabird, Eastern Yellow Robin, Rufous Whistler.

Pomax umbellata
under the microscope

Invertebrates: Spiders - Leaf Curling Araneus (Araneus dimidiatus), Unknown Spider; Scale Insect unidentified sp., and a badly mangled Children’s Stick Insect (Tropidoderus childrenii).

Flora: discussed and/or taken note of at the time (not a comprehensive list.)

Grasses, Sedges, etc.: Koala fern (Caustis blakei), Paspilidium grandisticulatum, Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra). 

Herbs: Dianella sp., Lady’s slipper (Hybanthus monopetalus), Pomax (Pomax umbellata), White Root (Lobelia purpurascens ), Little or Tiny Logania (Orianthera pusilla), Fringe Lily (Thysanotus multiflorus).

Vines, Scramblers & Climbers: Zig Zag Vine (Melodorum leichhardtii), Snake Flower (Scaevola ramosissima). Various species of Goodenias were also sighted.

Grass Trees: Johnson's Grass Tree (Xanthorrhoea johnsonii).

Shrubs: Flat-stem Wattle (Acacia complanata), Prickly Daviesia (Daviesia umbellulata), Dogwood (Jacksonia scoparia), Silky Geebung (Persoonia sericea), Slender Rice Flower (Pimelea linifolia), Woody Pear (Xylomelum pyriforme).

Trees: Smudgee (Angophora woodsiana), Blueberry Ash (Elaeocarpus reticulatus), Tallowwood (Eucalyptus microcorys), Quinine Tree (Petalostigma pubescens).

November Outing - Helidon Hills, Sunday 7 November 2021

Helidon Hills, 2007

Meet: Soldiers Memorial Park in Turner Street, Helidon at 9.00 a.m. and carpool from there.  Please email  if you would like a lift.

(toowoombafieldnaturalists@gmail.com)

Activities: Martin is an Environmental Officer with Lockyer Shire Council. He will lead us on an excursion in the Helidon Hills area. Always a favourite with the Toowoomba Nats.

Martin's walk will be in an area of Land Zone 5 (loamy and sandy plains and plateaus), Canopy trees likely to be observed are Baileys Stringybark (Eucalyptus baileyana), Budgeroo (Lysicarpus angustifolius), Smudgee (Angophora woodsiana), Planchon’s Stringybark (Eucalyptus planchoniana), Helidon Ironbark (Eucalyptus taurina), Helidon Stringybark (Eucalyptus helidonica). The understory is quite rich in wildflowers, and unusual species that are only found in the Helidon Hills area within the Lockyer Valley including Woody Pear, a number of Epacrids (heath family), numerous Wattle species, Petrophile (cone bushes), Hakea, Persoonia (Australian Proteaceae), Banksia, Grevillea. This promises to be a very interesting learning experience for our final field outing for this year.

Morning tea will be during our walk, and we will return to an area with facilities for lunch.

What to Bring: The usual – binocs, cameras, field guides, morning tea, lunch, chairs and protective materials, etc., etc., etc.

Please register your interest if you are not a member (toowoombafieldnaturalists@gmail.com) so we can contact you if there's any changes.

Please follow current COVID-19 restrictions 

and stay at home if you have any flu-like symptoms