Linda and Roger's Bunhybee Grasslands
FOG Visit – Saturday 19 November 2011


This is a page within Roger and Linda's Bunhybee Grasslands Web-Site.
Bunhybee Grasslands is a 49 hectare / 120 acre conservation property.
It is 35km south of Braidwood, in southern N.S.W.
You can follow through the internal links, or you may find it easier to use the Site-Map.


Friends of Grasslands (FOG) had previously visited Bunhybee and Parlour back in 2007-08, around the time that the Nature Conservation Trust acquired the properties. The efforts of FOG and Rainer Rehwinkel provided the original list of 161 native species.

FOG members visited Bunhybee again in May 2009, after we had purchased it from NCT.

A party of 9 members, plus 2 visitors from the Muehlviertel in Northern Austria, paid 2-hour visits to each of Bunhybee and Parlour on Saturday 19 November 2011. The newly-prepared Property Brochure (also available in PDF) was distributed.

The two properties have recovered very well from the drought of 2000-09, during which rainfall was at 77% of its long-term average of 750mm (30in) p.a. 2010 was about 150% and 2011 to date 95%.

The original list of 161 native species has grown to 220, split into three parts, for Flowering Plants, Grasses, and Trees & Shrubs.

Nonetheless, Margaret Ning's rapid-fire id'ing of 60 species included two that are new to the list - Geranium retrorsum and Gonocarpus micranthus. With a further 4 new species photos on the day, there are now local photos of 170 of the 220. The majority of the time was spent on plant id, but there was enough left over for a few photos of Flowering Plants and Grasses.


Click for a larger image

After lunch (photo above, the group moved south to the Parlour Grasslands property. This was acquired in 2010 by Canberra Airport, as an offset for the loss of significant areas of Natural Temperate Grassland and Grassland Earless Dragon habitat for the development of airport infrastructure and retail space, and as a source of Themeda seed for re-seeding at the northern end of the airport. A FOG Subcommitee works with Airport management on conservation matters, and permission was granted for a visit. During the short visit, the group identified 85 native species and 15 weed species.

Parlour's open grasslands were in very good condition, with Yorkshire Fog incursions and emergent blackberry the biggest causes for concern. The small timbered section has a greater general weed problem. The rock-gully needs attention this year. Otherwise, the vigorous blackberry trailers will use the moist conditions to turn themselves into a dozen 5-metre bushes. Spraying is highly undesirable in such locations, and hence late-summer/early-autumn cut-and-paint is the only tenable attack method.
Nonetheless, the group was heartened by the condition of these two very healthy and highly diverse segments of southern temperate grassland.


This is a page within the Bunhybee Grasslands Web-Site, home-page here, and site-map here

Contact: Linda or Roger

Created: 23 November 2011; Last Amended: 23 November 2011