First Visit

I ended up visiting the Reserve this evening, at about 5:30. I entered from the western edge if the reserve at the intersection of Llandilo Road and Spence Road, Berkshire Park. There was a pile of road base and lots of broken glass and assorted rubbish at this location, so it wasn't very salubrious, but there was a gap in the fence and a place to park.

At this point, there is a trail heading west to east, in a straight line for about 1 kilometre. I later learned that this trail is known as Herb's Track.

Along the track, at various locations, are signs stating that rehabilitation is occurring, but there aren't any signs of weeding or planting. Perhaps these areas are left to regenerate naturally?

Most trees are relatively young, with dark, rough bark - Broad-leaved Ironbarks (Eucalyptus fibrosa). Many trees also appeared to be blackened by fire. Other trees, like the one pictured below, had smooth, light-coloured bark with noticeable 'scribbles' - Hard-leaved Scribbly Gums (Eucalyptus sclerophylla) and scratches, presumably from Brush-tailed Possums (Trichosurus vulpecula).(

The biggest variation in vegetation composition was the variety of shrubs. The photo below was taken in a particularly verdant patch.

There was some grass cover, but often the ground was bare. In some places, virtually nothing was growing, perhaps due to soil compaction from when the site was a commercial forest - Castlereagh State Forest - I'll blog about that another day. Over time, I hope to familiarise myself with the different plants and animals of the Reserve, but for now I know virtually nothing. The shrub in the foreground is probably a young paperbark - White Feather Honey-myrtle (Melaleuca decora).

There were many of these ant mounds along the trail.

The ants that populate these nests are reddish-brown and about 1cm long. They collect thousands of small red stones and deposit them at the entrance to their nest mounds. The ants are very common in Sydney, and tend to get very aggressive when their nests are disturbed, but I've never known what they are called - until now. A quick web search reveals that they are Meat Ants (Iridomyrex purpureus).

On the way out, I noticed what appears to be a test bore of some kind.

I read somewhere that toxic waste was dumped in the Reserve, which was subsequently cleaned up. There is also a waste management facility nearby. The bore might be part of a program to monitor ground water quality. I'll investigate these things and post more at a later date.

Now that we've all seen the Reserve up close, I'll begin to do some web-based research and share my findings with my loyal blog readers :) I'll visit the site regularly and let you know if I see anything interesting on my trips.