​Greetings fellow Foxies,
 
This reserve near Tarwonga is not named on any map. The reserve is named after Michael Quinn, one of the pioneering pastoralists in the district, and whose name is preserved in the adjoining Quinn’s Pool.
It is a great area for wildflowers, bushwalking and birds because of so many pristine and varied land and vegetation types, including lovely riverside flats that have mostly been cleared for agriculture. It also contains part of an old bullock wagon trail from Wagin to Williams via camping spots at pools on the way.
About half was surveyed and fenced for agriculture but luckily not cleared. A small block was subsequently designated as a mallet reserve.
Now for the bad news. Most of the entry tracks and some internal ones cross waterways that are too deep and boggy for all but experienced four-wheel drive owners. I found a way in from Tarwonga Road, but one needs to drive on to a fairly steep road cutting to enter. OK if you have confidence and a car like my 2WD-ute that can handle the odd scratch from track-side vegetation. I also take an extra jack and recovery tracks in case I get bogged. Mobile phone reception is poor on the flats. It is a long walk to neighbouring farms, and 27kms to Narrogin.
There is a lot more to see that can be managed in one trip. I really enjoyed the frequent changes in landscape, views and vegetation while wandering through the bush. Numbers below indicate my favourite spots so far. Definitely returning next spring.

​Area 1 can be accessed by a short walk through sheoak woodland to clear “islands” of shallow granite.
This is a delightful area in August/September. I found blue fairy orchids, lemon scented sun orchids growing amongst wetland plants and everlastings.

Area 2 comprises the granite outcrops and mallet ridges further up on the crest of the hill. Walking up to it from area 1 can be a challenge due to dense regrowth of Acacia celastrifolia (great flowers in August). If you are tempted to drive directly up from the eastern boundary, there is a creek crossing that I won’t attempt in my ute in winter. Either walk up the firebreak or take a circuitous route from the (hidden) entrance on a road cutting bank further down.The walk in from the firebreak is a bit challenging via mallet ridges and dense growth, but it is worth it. I also found feral pig diggings on red soil here below a line of granite that marked an ancient fault line

​Area 3 is a long sandy gravel slope that adjoins area 2, with low breakaways on its southern and eastern edges. This is species-rich kwongan scrub with diverse new growth from a recent fire. Nice view from here, and interesting plants.

​ Area 4 is a waterway with shallow rocky soil nestled below mallet breakaways. The track up to it is eroded and a bit rough. Vegetation here is very attractive Calothamnus quadrifidus scrub dotted with Grevillea pinnatifida and Isopogon dubious shrubs. It is a lovely spot to wander around and explore

​Area 5 comprises gentle slopes and flats surrounding the two major waterways. This varies from orchid-rich shrubby sheoak and wandoo woodland, open wandoo woodland on sandy duplex soils to sand over gravel over clay open kwongan with patches of mallee. Pleasant country to have a picnic and walk around looking for orchids

For more photos of this reserve click this Google photos link

​The location is 19kms from Narrogin on the Tarwonga Road. Driving south, soon after passing the Highbury West Road intersection, the next uncleared land is Highbury B block. Look for the Telstra sign and turn left onto a track on the top of a rise. The trail leads further into a Telstra tower (note, it is easy to get lost if you try to follow any side trails.)
Stop by the large granite rock on the right (‘Telstra spot’). 

​The landscape and soils at the Telstra spot are unusual in having varying depths of grey gritty sand over grey clay with granite outcrops. The gnarled jarrah trees near shallow clay and rock are very unusual and there is a lovely range of shrubs around the rock including August flowering blue hakea (Hakea lehmanniana).
​The slope on the north side of the track has an attractive range of vegetation ranging from winter-wet low kwongan scrub on shallow sand over grey clay with larger plants and sheoak woodland where the sand is deeper. Good orchid country. Dotted in amongst this are lichen-rich low granite outcrops with rock pools and a beautiful but tiny red bladderwort (redcaps Utricularia menziesii) that I haven’t seen elsewhere in the Narrogin district

The slope on the north side of the track has an attractive range of vegetation ranging from winter-wet low kwongan scrub on shallow sand over grey clay with larger plants and sheoak woodland where the sand is deeper. Good orchid country. Dotted in amongst this are lichen-rich low granite outcrops with rock pools and a beautiful but tiny red bladderwort (redcoats Utricularia menziesii) that I haven’t seen elsewhere in the Narrogin district.
There is an illegal trail bike track provided for you to walk on. Be sure to smile for Parks and Wildlife hidden cameras that may be installed to catch trail bikers and illegal woodcutters

​To get to the ‘Forestry Road spot’ drive further down Tarwonga Road on the southern edge of the reserve and turn into Forestry Road. The Forestry road turnoff is easy to miss as it looks more like a fire access track. Park near the corner as there can be deep and boggy pools further down.
This is a water gaining spot with a wonderful show of orchids and other wildflowers in October. Of note is the tall late October flowering heart leaf poison Gastrolobium bilobum. This is the only spot in the district that I have found this poison, but it was more common in early settlement days because it was common in granite soil country that was favoured grazing country for early settlers. The lovely Pustkuchen ruin near here was abandoned because there was  such a huge germination of this poison after a wildfire on the land that the owners abandoned the farm.
Look carefully on the eastern edge of the poison to find silky blue orchids, Cyanicula sericea, purple pansy orchids Diuris longifolia, and a few little red kangaroo paws.
The mixed display of everlastings and other spring flowers is delightful
 
For more images click individual images in this Google photos album

​Greetings fellow Foxies,
Malyalling reserve is an attractive 52-hectare bush reserve that was a hub of activity for surrounding residents in the early 20th century. Read about this at the information bay on the corner of Kirk Rock and Wickepin-Yealering roads.

The School
A short track on the south side of Kirk Rock Road leads to a plaque commemorating the first one-teacher Malyalling School from 1910 to 1925. These schools were dotted all over the agricultural areas where an intrepid teacher taught all primary grades of children in fairly primitive conditions. Student numbers were often low to the extent that underage children were enrolled to meet the minimum number required.
The image below is particularly significant for my wife Aileen, as the teacher is Sir Fred Chaney who went on to become the minister for the navy in the Fraser federal government at the time of the Voyager disaster. The Chaney’s were also Aileen’s childhood neighbours in Kensington, and she has fond memories of playing with Freddy (AO), Michael (AO), and Rick Chaney. 
​A quaint school garden of introduced Sparaxis bulbs with rock borders remains.
When these schools closed due to lack of pupils they were carted off to another spot. I met a disgruntled grey nomad at Malyalling who was sick of going out to historic WA sites, only to find a plaque on a rock (can’t blame her).

​The Rock
The adjoining low granite rock has a nice covering of lichens and native plants, and gives a view of farm land to the south. Granite sun orchids and tiny little laughing leek orchids flower there in spring. Surrounding York gum-jam woodland is infested with wild oats (probably brought in by horses ridden by school kids and families attending events), but you can find fringed mantis orchids and donkey orchids around the base of the rock. Please take care to avoid lichens on the rock, particularly when they are dry and brittle

​The sports ground
A hub for local sport from 1920 to 1960,it is covered in regrowth. After much hunting around I found the football shed and tennis net support posts, the oval, and cricket pitch,
The largely intact morning tea shed was unfortunately littered from an evening drinking session by a fire.

​Bushwalking, bird watching and wildflower opportunities
There are some lovely areas of bush in the reserve. A highlight is the York gum woodland patch containing spring flowering blood spider orchids and stark white orchids, and orchid rich bushland on the other side of the road where I found an ant orchid. Splendid open salmon gum- wandoo forest on the south east area is a good bird watching and bushwalking area. I found a really unusual morel fungus there.
 
A flora survey of Malyalling and Rich Road reserves can be downloaded below

​Overall
The average tourist, arriving here without information will be disappointed, but with on-site interpretive panels and a brochure, it would be a nice spot for them

Greetings fellow Foxies,
 
At the end of August, Aileen and I had one of our best holidays together, at Wooleen Station in the Murchison. The holiday was particularly special as we stayed in the homestead and spent a lot of time over meals talking with owners David and Frances Pollock and other homestay guests. David and Frances are exceptional people who really inspired me to learn about this attractive, tough and interesting part of WA.
I have a good friend who worked as a rangeland adviser in the Gascoyne region, and who did rangeland vegetation monitoring but didn’t really appreciate his work or knowledge (sorry Don), until David explained the extent and ongoing nature of the degradation, the value of the now discontinued monitoring, and his inspiring vision/work.
There is just too much to summarise in an article, so I am listing some of my learning and experiential  highlights and urge you to learn more through the Australian Story podcasts, David’s exceptionally well researched and well written book “The Wooleen Way”, and their website .
 
Wooleen is totally different to Foxes Lair (although I did find some laterite), but I was amazed to similar principles and processes in a landscape where European activity has negatively altered the natural balance.
 
A few really interesting things
 

• On the drive up to Wooleen I kept noticing how the bush on one side of the road was prolific and looked like it had been burnt on the other. David explained that this is due to water starvation on the downside from being redirected on the upside by the road. Slopes up there are so low, the area looks flat. I see the same thing on a MUCH smaller scale in Foxes Lair from water running off our soils because of water repellence and almost no soil disturbance due to extinction of burrowing animals.
• Vegetation was once very different with large amounts of perennial grasses, saltbushes, bluebushes and other edible shrubs that have been eaten out to leave unpalatable species, annuals and much more bare ground.
• Many of these shrubs are very long lived. 100-year-old knee high bushes!  (I wonder how old the gnarled Kunzea baxteri shrubs in cracks on top of Yilliminning Rock are?). Once these go it takes a very long time for them to re-establish.
• No doubt, the local Wajarri people did controlled burning to freshen up grass growth, but fire is much less important than in agricultural areas for regeneration.
• The major issue there is sustained grazing pressure of perennial plants with drinking water availability and dingo predation being the major factor limiting overgrazing before the advent of the present stations.
• I was amazed to learn that kangaroos and feral goats make up 60% of the grazing pressure in that region and continues even when livestock are removed or greatly reduced. Assisting drought-stricken pastoralists on shrublands to retain livestock by supplying feed increases long term degradation as they and the masses of roos/goats continue to eat stressed shrubs until they die.
• By allowing the dingo (the natural predator) back onto his property, David has cleaned out all foxes and goats and brought roo numbers back to a normal level. As dingos only have a small effect on cattle it is a win win. Redirect money from controlling them into robust and maintained dingo fences to keep them out of agricultural areas. Read his book – this is highly contentious but brilliant. Unfortunately, dingos don’t get all the cats but must be reducing their numbers.
• Station owners have to get the bulk of their income from grazing !!!! (illegal to just have tourism) This is just one of the amazingly destructive edicts by the pastoralist dominated Pastoral Board that has resisted government efforts to reform them. I smell a lot of political clout there that will only go when that generation passes.

 
Below is a list of special experiences and learnings that made this a special holiday for this geology/soils/nature loving geek and his (relatively) normal wife, and links to Google Photos albums of favourite images.
 

• There is something special about staying in a station homestead and being able to learn so much over leisurely meals.

• Desert tree frogs in the outside toilet at night.
•  Really interesting buildings, museum, miscellaneous artefacts. A great feature of remote dry places is that old building, machinery remains as a testament to the past. All sort so things like the hand bellows in the forge and machine for making corrugated iron for the roof. Of course, I had to visit their dump and do recommend it.
• Wooleen Lake is a unique RAMSAR listed freshwater lake that has water about every 4 years (we were lucky). Amazing bird life and I found an interesting toadstool around a cow pat there. The lake is fresh because it was only formed relatively recently (60,000 years ago) by a fault that diverted the Roderick River from its course to the Murchison River.
• David’s bus tour of the property that culminates with watching a sunset from a large granite outcrop with a glass of wine. A must do to really understand the shrublands, David’s reclamation and local aboriginal culture.
• Beautiful and many quite different wildflowers in the short growing season. Incidentally the masses of everlastings that everyone loves are partially an artefact of land degradation. In pristine country shrubs and grasses would have dominated, with masses of everlasting only emerging after fire or soil disturbance.
• Lots more like the Murchison River, Yewlands Pool etc

 
Click this link for my pics
 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VrMy64T1fDRdhjMc9
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