Foxes Lair
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Contine Hill

27/9/2016

 
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Contine Hill is a great place in the Dryandra Woodland between Narrogin and Williams to visit for a picnic and a walk in all but the hottest part of the year. The site is a laterite mesa that gives a commanding view of the countryside, picnic tables, BBQ plates (May to September use), information bay, and two walks. Much of this was achieved by the Narrogin Lions Club. Cars with caravans can reach the spot but camping is not permitted.
From Narrogin, drive West on Clayton Road for 18km turn right up Rosedale Road (gravel) for 4km, turn right again at the sign to Contine Hill for 2km to the picnic area.
From 1933 to the 1960s Contine Hill was one of series of fire lookout towers in Dryandra Woodland. The overseer and his family lived here in a small house with no facilities. Little remains apart from the dam and some livestock fencing.

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Picnic area ,information panel
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View from lookout
Two walks start at the information bay.

The Firetower Loop walk (450m 15 minutes) is a short meander along the edge of the breakaway to the two fire lookout points. The dense ironstone soil here has similar sparse proteaceae vegetation to breakaways in Foxes Lair with the notable exception of the stunning pink Isopogon crithmifolius, and the secretive King Dryandra Banksia proteoides.
King Dryandra looks like a scrubby prickly shrub until you look underneath the foliage and find the large flowering buds that have attractive flowers enclosed by protea type bracts. These open to reveal the group of flowers inside then close again when they are fertilised. There are only 2 plants in the eastern part of the Foxes Lair Banksia Walk that I had to net to stop parrots nipping off the flowers.
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Fire observation point
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Isopogon crithmifolius
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King Dryandra
​The Breakaway Walk (1km 45 minutes) leads to the western side of the mesa and winds through ironstone pavement soil around the edge of the breakaway, before a moderately steep descent into a cool shady gully in rock sheoak/ wandoo woodland with abundant winter ferns, rushes, cowslip orchids and everlastings. The track goes past the old dam, follows an old fenceline and across a rock where you may find Lemon Scented Sun Orchids, and back to the picnic site.
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Undermined collapsed ironstone pavement
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Shady valley
Download a brochure from this web page

Foxes Lair Ruins

20/9/2016

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Pictureruins shown in red (not to scale)
Greetings fellow Foxies,
                                      Have you ever noticed small concrete and stone squares with remnants of fireplaces, drains etc scattered through the bush around the Williams Road exit from the Marri picnic area? They were probably no more than one room shacks, . It has been suggested that the huts were for post World War 2 eastern European migrants, or water supply construction workers. My WW2 immigrant mate John Z  assures me that they only had tents on bare earth or sleepers until they got a house. (Interestingly this largely accounts for the lack of evidence of these remarkable times apart from residents with names ending with ik ic ich and ych. There is a great story here.
I think that the inhabitants were construction workers for the Bottle Creek dam that was built in 1922. The dam was built after  the burning of the Hordern Hotel and another business caused an demand for a reliable water supply and a fire brigade.
 Before 1954, Narrogin was chronically short of fresh water. The Narrogin Observer regularly reported water restrictions, and I found a great 1945 Daily News headline  ‘More beer in Narrogin than water’.

But then I discovered a circular structure that resembled an ancient henge. Oh my God

Did the ancient druids discover Narrogin?

Was human sacrifice and other ghastly rituals conducted at Foxes Lair at this very place

Is the Narrogin Bunyip a druidic idol?

Stay tuned for more revelations!!!!!
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Is this an ancient henge?
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old house pad
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Lol Gray Loop: picnic area and walk trail

11/9/2016

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Greetings fellow Foxies,

This is the Lol Gray Loop, a nice spot visit for a group of wildflower lovers, bird watchers and fitness fanatics. It is a part of Dryandra woodland about 20km from Narrogin on the Wandering Narrogin Road. After passing the Dryandra Road entrance to the Lions Dryandra Village turn right (east) on to Kawana road and drive carefully on the narrow gravel road.
The road winds through typical Dryandra forest to the top of a high mesa where there is a picnic area and an old fire observation tower. The raised structure in the centre of the platform enabled the watcher to determine the direction of a fire. Could it also have been an altar where hearts of a captured firebugs were offered to a rain god?

Lol Gray was a shepherd and sandalwood cutter who emigrated from England in the early 1800s. His name survives as a soak he excavated just north of Dryandra, an adjacent early school and the general district.
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The image below shows the vegetation type. Brown mallet plantation at the start merges into mainly powderbark woodland on low gradient slopes’ interspersed by shrub heath with Drummonds mallee (Eucalytus drummondii) on sandy and sheet ironstone areas that have a wide array of flowering shrubs.
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lol_gray_wildflowers.pdf
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Many flowers are uncommon to, or not found in Foxes Lair (see PDF file).

Check out the planted grove of majestic silver mallets. Also called silver salmons, they can be mistaken for young salmon gums that grow on alkaline clays, but these only grow on gravel.
Where erosion has created deep bowl shaped valleys fringed by breakaways, brown mallet thickets thrive on the underlying acidic mottled clay, and have created extreme water repellence to exclude other plants.
A picnic table at the top is a great place to have a munch and send the energetic on the 3km walking trail that passes down a rocky gravel spur to the lower slopes and returns via a steep brown mallet breakaway. The rocky gravel area is steep with loose stones. Not for the dodgy hip brigade!

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Powderbark then brown mallet on Kawana Road
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silver mallet E. argyphea
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Walk trail up a breakaway
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Powderbark woodland on walk trail
One can drive back on the same road or continue south on the formed road until it turns into 3 fire access tracks, and take the right hand track back north to rejoin Kawana road. As the road has a steep area that may have some ruts, drive slowly to enjoy the view safely.
 The fire access track goes through a nice Rock Sheoak patch with  dolerite red loam hollow flanked by granite. This is a lovely green area in spring with everlastings, red sundews and other annual flowers. I found some purple enamel orchids, cowslip orchids and cupped leek orchids here.
A bit further on is the junction with the walking track where incapacitated or exhausted walkers can be collected. 

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Turn left at the Kawana road intersection to return to the Narrogin Williams Road.
In late October to early November you may be lucky enough to find sun orchids (Wandoo sun orchid/Thelymitra macrophylla and Scented sun orchid/Thelymitra latiloba), and Bearded orchid/ Calochilus robertsonii under the brown mallets by the track near the Narrogin Williams road. They are elusive as the sun orchids will only flower in sun, and beard orchids self pollinate and may only flower very briefly.

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Wandoo sun orchid
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Bearded orchid
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Swinging Toolibin

1/9/2016

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Greetings fellow Foxies,
                                      This is an addition to the Toolibin Lake and scenic tour blog. 100 years ago the wheatbelt population was about ten times more than now, with railway sidings often having a school, a hall, and a general store/post office. Toolibin inhabitants were mostly railway workers, but with the great depression, and increased mechanisation all that remains is a nice Morris Minor, and the ever present pepper tree and bamboo clump marking the school site.
Upslope (b) is grey sandy gravel containing kwongan prickly heath with interesting flowers in spring.
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For Sale apply within
However the prize spot is a funky one room bed sitter (c) a bit further down on Line Road that has an interesting story. Apparently a buyer noticed an ad for the “house” and land in the West Australian for what appeared to be a ridiculous price and bought it sight unseen. Well, in life what appears to be too good to be true usually is, but locals noticed that the shack was occupied at times, perhaps by the owner doing renovations?

Having said that, it may be available for rent by those who desire a love nest with a difference
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