Friends of Morwell National Park - June 2024

The group met in the Kerry Road picnic area and was joined by several walkers from the Ben Cruachan Walking Club.

Ken welcomed the group, and then we caught up with happenings over the last month. Work on the bird book continues and it should be ready for the launch in November. Another grant has been received and along with the money from this Friends group, the book is now fully funded. It was proposed that the group should investigate creating a new website to include a shop and purchase a domain name for hosting the site. The existing web site has been up for many years and is due for updating.

Over the last month there was a meeting with Parks and the project manager related to the storm repairs and new signage. Plans continue to replace some of the bridges lost, repair other bridges damaged in the storms, and replace the barbecue and picnic tables from the picnic area. It is planned for the works in the Kerry Road part of the park to be completed first. There are plans to have three informational signs erected at each of the main entrances to the park (Kerry Road, Junction Road and Braniff Road). Each sign will have a slightly different focus and work on the content of these signs will continue in another meeting next month.

For the day’s activity the expanded group were walking around Fosters Gully looking at the different fungi and lichens. Gordon, Beryl and Darren separately went to replace the post markers on the Butterfly Orchid survey plots. Gordon had sourced metal star pickets and plastic caps which will make each of the five plots easier to locate. This group replaced the pegs on the first plot leaving the remaining plots to be done next month. When they finished, they joined the rest of the walkers.

The walkers were spread along the Fosters Gully track with the fungi hunters making slower progress investigating many nooks and crannies beside the track. Below are some of the fungi seen over the day (thanks to Caitilin for the photos and Matt for the identifications):

Part way into the walk drizzle started to fall, off and on. As the walk continued the drizzle became a little heavier. At the end of the walk everybody was happy to head home to dry off and have lunch. Some of the walkers even went on to another location to do some more walking.