Our lunch spot at Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia

One of our favourite places to visit near our home is the Pangarinda Arboretum at Wellington near the Murray River in South Australia. It is about a half hour drive from home. The arboretum is a vast collection of Australian native plants, many of them displaying spectacular flowers. Over the coming days I will be showcasing some of those plants and flowers on this site.

Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia

Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, has been deliberately planned with parks and gardens surrounding the CBD. Botanic Park is one such park and is located between Adelaide Zoo and Adelaide Botanic Gardens. The Bicentennial Conservatory is just a five minute walk from where I took these photos.

Links:

• Adelaide Botanic Gardens
• Bicentennial Conservatory
• Adelaide Zoo

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

At the end of August we took our daughter to Adelaide Airport. She was on her way to teach for the rest of the year in Ethiopia. After seeing her off we drove to Botanic Park near the CBD of Adelaide. Here we had a picnic lunch before driving back home.

Adelaide’s park-lands are a feature of this beautifully planned city. The main park-lands, of which this is just one section, surround the CBD and separate it from the suburbs. It’s certainly a wonderful place to picnic and spend some time relaxing.

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Typical mallee country between Balranald and Mildura

Sydney Trip June 2011

On the second day of our trip home from Sydney earlier this year we stopped at the Malleefowl Rest Area. This is part way between Balranald in far western New South Wales and Mildura in north western Victoria. We were heading to Mildura where we had a cabin booked in one of the caravan parks for the night.

The rest area is set just off the highway in the midst of typical mallee country complete with saltbush, bluebush and spinifex. This open eucalypt scrubland is widespread in these parts of Australia, as well as large tracts of South Australia and Western Australia. I have a strong affinity with this type of bushland because the farm house I grew up on was set in the midst of some mallee scrub. And for the last twenty eight years I’ve had my own piece of mallee bush to live in.

Typical mallee country between Balranald and Mildura

Typical mallee country between Balranald and Mildura

Lake Roberts, Lameroo, South Australia

Earlier this year my wife and I drove from our home in Murray Bridge in South Australia to Sydney in New South Wales. We were going there to play with our precious grandson – oh, and see our son and daughter in law. On our first day of travelling we left early and reached Lameroo in the Murray Mallee region of eastern South Australia.

We stopped at our favourite place on the edge of town at Lake Roberts. Here we had morning tea and a cuppa. The sunshine was lovely but the breeze was bitterly cold. I managed a few photos of the local birds before we headed east again. We had a great distance to cover before bed time.

Grain silos, Lameroo, South Australia

Lameroo is a small town in a prominent farming region. The main agricultural pursuits are wheat and barley crops with potatoes grown at nearby Parilla. Many farmers also run sheep and cattle on their farms.

After leaving Lameroo we continued driving for about an hour and half before finding a convenient roadside parking area where we stopped to have a picnic lunch. There was a interesting patch of scrub next to the car park, complete with a short walking trail featuring a good range of local native flora (see photo below). This was of particular interest to my wife but the bird life was keeping a low profile and rather quiet so I didn’t get a long list species seen in this location.

Roadside walking trail between Lameroo and Ouyen

Penguin Point, Marion Bay, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

On the second day of our recent short holiday on Yorke Peninsula here in South Australia we drove from Edithburgh where we were staying to the town of Yorketown. Here we refueled and also visited a local nursery. My wife has a small nursery of her own and is always on the lookout for native Australian plant nurseries to visit, just like I’m always on the prowl for bookshops.

We then drove to Marion Bay near the heel of the peninsula. Many years ago we had several very enjoyable beach holidays in this small town. It had been quite a few years since our last visit, so we were interested in seeing what changes had occurred in recent years. The original beach shack area in the old part of this beach village had changed little, but there has also been considerable building going on to the south with many new – and expensive looking – houses. Many of them were obviously holiday homes and not permanent dwellings.

We stopped in the car park at Penguin Point. We had to sit in the car to eat lunch as the wind had intensified during the morning and was by then almost gale force. Not at all pleasant to be sitting outside. In fact, I tried to take a few photos of two Ospreys soaring on the wind above the bay and had terrible trouble keeping on my feet to take the shots.

Marion Bay, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

Marion Bay, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

Galah at Burra Gorge, mid north of South Australia

Burra Gorge in the mid north of South Australia is an interesting location for birding. This gorge marks the boundary between the hills further west and the dry plains to the east. It is therefore a transitional zone between the birds of the wetter parts to the west, especially around the Clare Valley about 40km away, and flora and fauna of the saltbush plains immediately to the east.

On my most recent visit last spring, the bird life was not very prominent because it was midday on a rather warm day. It would be good to camp here for several days because I believe I’d get quite a good list of birds, especially first thing in the morning. Several Galahs looked like they were preparing to breed because they were investigating hollows in some of the trees in the picnic ground.

Nearby an Australian Magpie was already sitting on a nest and others were feeding recently fledged young begging to be fed.

Magpie on nest at Burra Gorge, mid north of South Australia

Burra Gorge, mid north of South Australia

Burra Gorge, mid north of South Australia

Burra Gorge, South Australia

Late last year we travelled to Peterborough in the mid-north of South Australia. We were visiting family and on the way we stopped at the beautiful Burra Gorge for lunch. This gorge cuts through the hills to the south east of the old mining town of Burra. It is a popular picnic area with picnic tables and toilets but no other facilities.

It is also a popular camping area, as shown in the photo above. Our visit was during school holidays as so there were quite a few campers and caravans in the camping area. All campers have to be self sufficient as far as food and water is concerned. The nearest shops are in Burra, some 30km away. There are also no powered sites.

Burra Gorge, South Australia

Yellow Rosella, Balranald, NSW

Whenever we travel, we try to pick suitable places for meal breaks. For us, suitable places are not shopping malls, places with crowds of people and busy locations. We prefer quiet, natural spots where I can do some birding while we have lunch or a cuppa.

On our way home from Sydney last year we stopped for lunch on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River in Balranald, far south western New South Wales. While we ate I managed a few photos of the local birds, including the Yellow Rosella shown above. This rosella is a sub species of the common Crimson Rosella usually seen much further east. For a better photo click here.

A Laughing Kookaburra also came near for a look at what we were doing, but I was unable to get a close shot before he flew off downstream. For better photos click here.

Laughing Kookaburra, Balranald, NSW