​Greetings fellow Foxies,
 I love climbing and understanding rocks (my wife thinks that there is mountain goat in my ancestry).
In the process of producing a Boyagin Rock brochure I climbed over and around it and compared it with our other great rock tourist destination, Yilliminning Rock. Both are inselbergs that outcrop from underlying granite basement rock that welled up when two older slabs of continental rock crashed into each other about two thousand seven hundred million (2,700,000,000) years ago. At the time volcanos erupted and a huge alpine mountain range similar to today’s Himalayas was formed. Over great time this bit of rock joined with others to form Australia and the supercontinent Gondwana, that joined more to form the global supercontinent Pangea, that then split up (greatly simplified). Very slowly the mountain range weathered and washed away.
Another mind-blowing statistic is that Yilliminning and Boyagin rocks were once part of magma chambers 5 to 7 kilometres below the ground surface. These have been exposed over eons as the overlying material was removed.
 
In the agricultural area, features like ridges, cracks and waterways tend to follow straight lines that may suddenly change from one direction to another. Our soils and the depth to crystalline bedrock are shallower than many other parts of the world. Surface features often reflect faults, intrusions and other changes in the mainly granite basement. Lines frequently trend northwest- south east, northeast -southwest, east-west, and north-south.
 
There are distinct differences between the two rocks.
Yilliminning Rock is more typical as a large granite dome arising from a gently undulating landscape.

​The Boyagin landscape is much hillier, and the rock itself is more variable. It is one of two adjoining large rocks project from the eastern side of a lateritic upland plain.
In the early morning, variations in the texture of Boyagin Rock granite can be seen in strange shapes where there has been uneven weathering of the rock. Look closely and you can see lines and mini ‘craters’ and lumpy spots on the otherwise smooth granite. 

​A look on a map shows that uplands and rivers in the Brookton area commonly trend north-south up to beyond the Avon Valley.

​An explanation goes back about 95 million years when India was once attached to, but slowly separating from WA. Brookton and surrounds were part of a plain with west-flowing rivers carrying sediment
into a rift valley that is now the Swan Coastal Plain (Perth – Bunbury etc.)
 
83 million years ago India finally separated from western WA and drifted north to crash into Asia.
With the weight of the Indian block removed, a line east of the Darling Fault from about Carnamah to the south coast bulged upwards to create the Darling Range. The land rose about 250 metres and was accompanied by other parallel downward and upward folds in the ground to its east.
 
These changes in slope completely blocked the old east-west flowing rivers and the blocked water ran down a new valley south from Dalwallinu (Mortlock North branch), and North from Pingelly (Avon South branch) into the Swan River.
The newly created Boyagin Creek then exposed Boyagin Rock.
​General north- south river systems and lines of ridges in the Darling Range can be seen on the before and after diagrams

​When I investigated the southwest base of Boyagin Rock I was surprised to see what looks like a quite recent north west-south east fault in the granite that had been exposed in a creek. 

As it turns out, generally east of Brookton is a localised earth movement hotspot in the southwest seismic zone (remember the Meckering earthquake?).
The Darling Range may also still be slowly rising so the old rocks may still be rocking. Of course the Wagyl also had a part to play.
 Click this link for a visual exploration of the rock.
Next time you climb Boyagin Rock take a good look around and be grateful for this true rock of ages.

Greetings fellow Foxies,
​Boletes are fleshy fungi with a central stalk like agarics (mushrooms toadstools) but the underside has pores instead of gills. Polypores have pores like boletes but are generally tough or leathery fungi that usually arise from wood.

In early winter the giant salmon gum bolete Phlebopus marginatus pops up amongst trees down from the picnic area at the arboretum. The similar but slightly smaller Slippery Jack bolete Suillus luteus occurs next to it. This is an import that forms  mycorrhizae on the adjoining pine trees. It is apparently a delicacy in Italy, but must be peeled and cooked ( looks ghastly as a food item to me). Only once I found the beautiful Rhubarb Bolete Boletellus obscurecoccineus near the claypit.

​A few years ago I found a 'fairy ring' of salmon gum boletes in the arboretum. They were pretty humungous and eaten out by fungus fly maggots - A goblin ring?



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There are still lots of boletes that remain unnamed, and many boletes change colour ('stain') when bruised or cut.The one below is a blue stainer. Yellow pores and white flesh turn blue when cut or bruised.

This june the large one below popped up and covered a mallee seedling I was watering at the Marri picnic area. The stem turned reddish brown and the pores rapidly turned blue when cut. I have heard of red-blue stainers, perhaps it is one.