Barwon River above Buckley Falls

It was good to get out of the house this morning after a torrid week, four days above 41°C. It was back to the low twenties and members of the Geelong Field Nats found the walk along the Barwon River very pleasant.

View west from Newtown Lookout, smoke haze from the Grampian fire over the Barrabool Hills

We met at Baums Weir on the north bank of the river near Fyansford, and walked downstream along the footpath as far as the old paper mill near Buckley Falls. It's not very far but, at typical field nat's pace, it took all morning. The river environment has been highly modified by industrial activity (there were several flour mills as well as the paper mill along this stretch of the river), steps, landscaping, footpaths, weirs and quarrying. There are several old quarries along the way so we were able to see the evidence of long-ago volcanic activity here and downstream at Buckley Falls. The Friends of Buckley Falls have been very active for several decades, weeding and planting as well as fighting bureaucracy to create a buffer between the river and the encroaching suburbs. It's still a work in progress but the results so far are magnificent.

Baums Weir

Near the bridge on Geelong Ring Road where it crosses the Barwon.

The race (at left) was constructed in the 1870s to feed water to the paper mill.

Suburbia is not far from the river and getting closer.

Old quarry 

Old quarry

Fairy Martin nests in the old quarry

Buckley Falls

Today we saw a variety of birds along the river (Crested Shrike-tits, Grey Fantails, Silvereyes, cormorants, ducks, Grey Shrike-thrush, Red-browed Finch, Brown Thornbills etc) as well as raptors flying overhead (Whistling Kites, Black Kites). A highlight was the group of seven Whistling Kites moving and talon-grappling in the thermals overhead.

Buckley Falls

One of my friends goes birdwatching every morning. He has a routine, a particular patch that he checks out each day, and he records what he sees each day. And because he's been doing it for a number of years now the data that he has accumulated is invaluable. Part of his patch is Buckley Falls on the Barwon River on the western outskirts of Geelong.

The rest of us make spasmodic visits because it's a beautiful area and occasionally we see some really nice (by which I mean special) birds, but my friend knows where the birds nest, the size of their territories, when the migrants arrive and leave, changes to the environment. He enjoys the common birds, loves the challenge of finding the nests (although he got very frustrated last year because the nests of Crested Shrike-tits are very difficult to find). The Buckly Falls area is a very reliable spot to find Nankeen Night-herons sitting on the rocks in the daytime, and in winter the Pink Robins and Rose Robins passing through.

The falls are named after William Buckley, the escaped convict who lived with aborigines in this area for three decades before the settlers from Tasmania arrived. They've been modified by a low wall across the river, another weir upstream and a viaduct on the north side built to supply water to a paper mill in the 1800s but are still delightful. There is a Friends group doing fantastic work with planting and weeding. Picnic spots, lookouts and walking tracks have been established on both sides of the river. Suburbia is approaching from the south but a buffer zone has been negotiated.

It's easy to forget that the falls are there because they are not visible from any main roads, but they are well worth a visit.

The junction

Exactly three years ago I took a photo of the junction of the Moorabool and Barwon rivers at Geelong. Today I took another photo from the same spot. The eucalypts have grown nicely and it's going to be a beautiful spot when they've matured. I wonder what will happen if or when we get another flood - at the moment neither river is running. In fact a friend is getting concerned about the proliferation of mangrove seedlings on the mud banks in the Barwon estuary and, in particular, at the feeding grounds of the endangered Orange-bellied Parrot where the Barwon runs out of Lake Connewarre - he says the river desperately needs a flood.

A rocky plant

There is a plant in my garden that has refused to die from neglect and drought. It flowers all year round, and has more or less stayed the same size for about 15 years. It's a Cockspur Plectranthus parviflorus. As it's name, parviflorus, indicates, its flowers are not very big, but they are pretty. And it has a distinctive smell - unsurprising really, because it's in the Lamiaceae family in company with the mints, salvias, prostantheras and westringias.

In Geelong it grows naturally in a few rocky areas along creeks and rivers, in particular at Buckley Falls on the Barwon River in Highton. At this location it is a threatened species. On a distribution map this little plant grows up the east coast of Australia and the occurance in Geelong is a little dot on its western limit.

Up the creek

We started in bright sunshine. At Ceres in the Barrabool hills I just had to stop and take some photos of the Barwon River valley covered in fog. It looked spectacular and I'm pleased with the photos.

By the time we got to Winchelsea to meet up with other field naturalists it was cold and wet. In the rain we explored the riparian vegetation of the Barwon River with two men who have been very involved, with others, in weeding and planting. The gorse, blackberry and willow have been replaced by Black Wattle, Gynatrix, River Red Gum, Blackwood, poas and sedges. They've had great success despite the drought. It's hard to take photos when your gloves are wet, your fingers frozen, your glasses covered in rain drops and your nose dripping! But several of us found some lovely little fungi species to photograph.

The weather cleared and we went further upstream to see a section of the river that a farmer has fenced off from animals. He's installed a solar pump to take the water to the stock rather than the other way round. The River Red Gums lining the river were ancient and we thought they were wonderful. So did the cockatoos, galahs, corellas and Red-rumped Parrots. We also found Callistemon sieberi and Leptospermum myrsinoides. Dave took home a scoop of the river water to identify the invertebrates under his microscope. It would be good to go back in a decade or so to see what grows now that the stock has been excluded.