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

White Mountain, September

It was a lovely time to venture into the far western edge of the Helidon Hills area, near White Mountain. Our first stop was at the creek crossing below Greg's place to look at the havoc caused by the January flood.

Jenny & Nick in the ravaged creek

After morning tea we had an invigorating walk through his property. A particular plant of interest was the Climbing Orchid Erythrorchis cassythoides or Black Bootlace Orchid. 

Erythrorchis cassythoides 

 

The black stems

                                                                                    

Looking at the long dark stems you can see the reason for its name. Go to Trish Gardner's blog for more about this lovely orchid,  toowoombaplants2008.blogspot.com/2009/09/black-bootlace-orchid.html. Other plants that caught our attention were Large-leaf Hop-bush Dodonaea triquetra, the vulnerable Four-tailed Grevillea Grevillea quadricauda, and the Koala Fern Caustis blakai subsp macrantha. 

Four-tailed Grevillea

Plenty of Koala Fern 
on the rocky slopes

John and Bob coming through
the Koala Fern and Grass Trees

Bird list: +/- 250m from S27º 25.724'  E152º 05.377' The honeyeaters were out in force on this fine spring day. The Scarlet Honeyeaters particularly were calling and fluttering everywhere. So though there was plenty of activity only 12 species were recorded on the morning. Perhaps some quiet time beside the creek may be worth investigating in the future. We also saw Button-quail platelets. Possibly Painted Button-quail as they've been recorded at Paradise Creek which is close by. Lorikeet sp. (Rainbow/Scaly-breasted), Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Laughing Kookaburra, White-throated Treecreeper, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, Rufous Whistler, Grey Shrike-thrush, Pied Currawong. 

Relaxing at lunch

Photos by Lesley & Heather.
  

Nats at the Quarry, May 2010

Adapted from the TFNC newsletter report by Tricia Allen

Helidon Sandstone Industries (H.S.I.)

Nats at the quarry

As I had long wanted to take the Field Nats to this place, it was gratifying to see such a large group turn up. We were informed that the sandstone deposit was originally a fresh water lake. Approximately 40 million years ago during the Jurassic Period, massive volcanic activity and earthquakes formed the sandstone deposit. Most of the earth that was dumped on top of this deposit compressed the sand in the lake into sandstone rock. This earth has since weathered away leaving only about half a metre of cover over the sandstone.

We began the morning by all travelling in a group higher up the property to view the revegetation of the bushland and the present extraction sites. What a difference there was between the moonscape of present or recently mined areas and revegetated early mined spots.

After morning tea near Lump Lake, we split into two groups. Lesley lead a group of bird watchers back up the top, while the rest of us made our way up the base of the gorge where black cockatoos, spiders and a great close-up view of a beautiful Evening Brown Butterfly took out interest. The group then met again to hear Greg, our minder from H.S.I. explain the differences in the quality of rock sites we had seen and the different methods of extraction. He then showed us the amazing cutting machines involved and explained that they are now the only sandstone site to process the rock entirely in Australia, as most is being sent 'raw 'to China for processing. I think everyone was impressed with the finished product, with the 'lolly' stone being the crowd favourite. 

Quite a crowd

Quarrying, er …. Birding in the Helidon Hills – 09 May 2010

Some of the group decided to retrace their steps to do some birding in the heavier wooded gullies. There were plenty to see; Weebills, Buff-rumped Thornbills, a juvenile Golden Whistler, and White-throated, Striped, Yellow-faced and Fuscous Honeyeaters all fossicking in amongst the saplings. Across the track on the way down to the rock face were a number of spiders’ webs. The largest being the Golden Orb Nephila edulis with the golden silk shining in the sunlight. The female was very obvious in the centre and in one web we saw the small male on the outer edges. Sharing these webs were some Dew Drop Spiders Argyrodes antipodianus. Another spider to catch our attention was the Jewel Spider Austracantha minax. After morning tea a small group went birding on one of the ridges while others went exploring the little gorge. The ridges were found to be more interesting for the botany than the birds, and Al showed us a Copper-tailed Skink Ctenotus taeniolatus.

Copper-tailed Skink Ctenotus taeniolatus

Bird List: Helidon: White-throated Gerygone, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Weebill, Spotted Pardalote, Striated Pardalote, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Fuscous Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, White-throated Honeyeater, Striped Honeyeater, Pied Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Golden Whistler, Grey Fantail, Jacky Winter, Willie Wagtail, Eastern Yellow Robin. Lake Apex, Gatton: Pacific Black Duck, Australasian Grebe, Australian White Ibis, Royal Spoonbill, Dusky Moorhen, Noisy Miner, Torresian Crow. Lake Galletly and Lake Lenor, Gatton Campus: Magpie Goose, Plumed Whistling-Duck, Pink-eared Duck, Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Australasian Grebe, Little Black Cormorant, Australian White Ibis, Purple Swamphen, Dusky Moorhen, Crested Pigeon, Laughing Kookaburra, Sacred Kingfisher, Superb Fairy-wren, Noisy Miner, Brown Honeyeater, Striped Honeyeater, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Grey Butcherbird, Pied Butcherbird, Willie Wagtail, Torresian Crow, Magpie-lark, Welcome Swallow. 38 species