The 100 hectare Yarling Nature Reserve  (36 kilometres east of Narrogin, 7 kilometres west of Wickepin, originally a mallet reserve), is a rarely visited patch of bush. Turn south from Williams Kondinin road on to Watt Road to access the reserve. The view from the road is mostly uninviting due to dense woodland, which hasn't been burnt for decades. This is not a place for the average tourist as there are no trails or facilities, and it is difficult to walk through some areas.
​However, it is an interesting spot with an attractive and wildflower-rich kwongan sand valley on the southern edge.

This area is part of a major watershed, which separates the Hotham, Arthur and Avon River catchments. It contains remnants of an ancient undulating lateritic plain, which has been eroded by river systems to the underlying granite. The millions of years old  plain can be likened to a layer-cake, with the top layer of gravel, sand, or ironstone overlying a pale/mottled clay (pallid zone) over decomposing granite or dolerite.
Like most reserves in the district, Yarling is mostly agriculturally poor laterite or rock. A line of breakaways separate a remnant of the ancient  plain from more recent soils on underlying layers to the north and west.

The northern breakaway roughly follows a dolerite dyke, which is is associated with the Binneringie Dyke further to the south. This is because the dyke was more resistant to erosion from the granite contact line being 'cooked' into more resistant rock, and stony laterite formed on dolerite being more erosion-resistant than that formed on granite.

Much of the sheoak forest is choked by dead saplings, which germinated after a wildfire over 50 years ago, and have slowly died off due to competition without any other fires to remove the dead litter. The shrub understorey has become impoverished because shrubs that depend on fire for germination have died.

A few patches of open Red Morrel woodland occur on dolerite brown loam.

Brrown Mallet whipstick woodland lines the breakaway slopes and edges and other areas where the pallid zone clay layer below the gravel is exposed. The mallets are mostly a uniform size due to mass regrowth after the fire over 50 years ago. Since then the stand has been very slowly thinning in a fairly monotonous landscape.

The ancient lateritic plain on the south eastern side contains lateritic stony and impoverished soils. There are a few stony dryandra ridges and an gentle slope of open Silver Mallet Eucalyptus falcata woodland interspersed with brown mallets. Silver Mallet is a beautiful tree, which can be confused with Salmon Gums. However, Silver Mallet only grows on lateritic gravel soils, and Salmon Gum occurs on clay slopes and valleys.
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on the southern edge there is group of rare Brown Mallet / Red Morrel hybrids.

Species-rich winter-moist kwongan sandplain on a very broad sandy valley on the southern side contains an a wide range of unusual wildflowers, with varying flowering times from August to November. The lower end is mainly dense Eremaea pauciflora shrubland crossed by numerous kangaroo tracks. From September to November I noticed  plants flowering with the best in late October. The easiest way to reach this area is to walk east from the patch of Red Morrel trees on the western side, but it is not easy walking.

as one walks up the valley Eremaea pauciflora gives way to other species such as Calothamnus quadrifidus and Verticordias on yellow sand then Callitris pines.

A triangle on the south eastern edge was illegally cleared, which is very sad as most of it was wonderful kwongan sandy shrubland of little agricultural value. It was replanted some years later in 1996 to wandoos and understory shrubs. 
The wandoos and shrubs have grown well, apart from the deep white sand area. However after 27 years there are still extensive bare areas and very little recruitment of new species from the adjacent uncleared area.
​Our native bush sandy soils are very sensitive, and recover extremely slowly once organic matter, seeds and native microbes has been reduced. 

Rich Road Reserve Location 14733 is a 35 hectare gravel pit reserve which is 30 kilometres east of Wickepin and 63 kilometres east of Narrogin. To get there drive east from Wickepin on the Williams-Kondinin Road and turn north up 10 Mile Road. The remaining 15 kms up to 86 Gate road then right to the Rich Road intersection is gravel road. 

​The whole area is underlain by granite bedrock. Lower silica granite in most of the reserve has produced soils with well-structured orange brown subsoils with frequent large termite mounds ("ant hill country'), and there is a northwest / southeast  band of grey sandy soils from high silica granite.
​Eastern and western sides of the reserve are lateritic soil slopes which adjoin the central waterway.

Areas 1 and 2 are hard setting soils formed on mottled zone below the gravel layer. 1 denotes slight gravelly loam rises with allocasuarina shrubs (Tammar) with proteaceae shrub and some Rock Sheoak vegetation. I found Caladenia falcata orchids in woodland gravel 1 in September.

​Areas 2 are broad depressions supporting Inland Wandoo (Eucalyptus capillosa) trees with sparse ground cover.

​Area 3 is a sandy gravel/ sand over gravel kwongan rise with occasional Eucalyptus albida mallees. This was particularly attractive in late June due to a number of flowering Acacias, Daviesias, and proteaceae plants

Area 4 is the broad valley floor and gentle side slopes with open wandoo woodland dotted with large termite mounds. This is pleasant easy walking country with several orchid species and everlasting in years with good spring rain. 

Area 5 forms the edge of the main trunk valley, and has a range of soil types ranging from wandoo sand over clay to York Gum loam and Salmon gum clay. This area is very weedy and mildly salt affected.

Area 6 on the north east corner is wandoo woodland, which grades to wandoo and shrubs where the soil has more sand or gravel. The loamy pure wandoo patch is choked  with weeds and dead trees, which make it difficult to walk through. This is a clue that this part of the reserve has not carried a fire for decades. Other parts of this area have attractive flowering shrubs. 

Area 7 in the centre-east is reclaimed gravel pit and prickly shrubland with attractive winter-spring flowers.
Area 8 is deep sand over clay soil with open wandoo woodland, which grades to rock sheoak woodland adjoining 86 Gate road.

An earlier Malyalling and Rich Road vegetation survey can be dowloaded here.

To get to Ockley Reserve drive east on the Narrogin-Kulin Road for about 25 kilometres and turn right on to Armstrong Road (eastern edge of North Yillminning Nature Reserve). There is only single paddock between Ockley and North Yilliminning reserves but they have many differences.
North Yilliminning Reserve is mostly upland sand and stony gravel plain, with many Cowslip Orchid/ Little Pink Fairy Orchid hybrids. .
Ockley has more ridges and breakaways  and more soil variability. Cowslip orchids are common on pale sandy soils, but I found no hybrids. The landscape is dominated by a high ridge on the southern side, which is associated with a mafic dyke (red brown loams and ironstone gravel), and north-west /south-east trending granite dykes (sandy and sandy gravel soils), which are fringed by breakaways

Water from the long slope flowing down to Armstrong Road from the southern ridge-mesa joins east joins headwaters of the Yilliminning River.
The 145 hectare reserve has a triangle of uncleared private property containing a farm dam intruding on the road side, which is now effectively a part of the reserve. There are no roads or trails in the reserve.
I was unimpressed with this reserve when I visited it in 2020, because the shrub and herb understorey was depleted and weedy due to lack of regenerative fire.
There has been a dramatic change after the devastating February 2022 fire. Most weeds were cleaned out and there has been massive post-fire regrowth. I expect a great wildflower show for the next 5 to 10 years.
I set up photo monitoring points to record the changes in future years. I regret not keeping any images before the fire. 
Numbers on the map indicate locations of photoreference points I have established to monitor plant growth after the fire. Number and range of regrowth has varied greatly with soil type

Reference Point 1 is a gravelly Balga-Proteaceae gravel ridge. The sparse growth is mainly resprouting shrubs and germinating seedlings.

Reference point 3 is a red-brown loam valley adjoining a gravelly rise. Before the fire this area was open mallee- Red Morrel tree woodland, with a sparse shrub understorey. Regrowth has been remarkable! Trees and mallees have resprouted, and there has been a germination of previously unreported Alogyne huegleii Wheatbelt Hibiscis on red loam soil. Other fire ephemerals are Solanum symonii,Thomasia foliosa, (which is occasionally seen in unburnt country) and a Hopbush Dodonaea bursarifolia. Gastrolobium poison plants have also germinated and dominate lighter soil ereas.

​Reference point 5 is a steep mafic breakaway above Red Morrell and Brown Mallet open forest on brown loam.  Red Morrell trees have resprouted,and there is a scattered germination of shrub understorey.

​Reference point 7 is a low slope leading from a mafic gravel plateau. Before the fire this was Red Morrel (Eucalyptus longicornis) / Brown Mallet (E. astringens) open forest with no understorey. After the fire the morrels have resprouted, dead brown mallets have lost their bark, and numerous mallet seedlings have emerged. Some understorey shrubs are visible in 2024.

​Reference point 9 is a steep bowl shaped breakaway with Brown Mallet on the upper slope and Wandoo- Brown Mallet below. There has been dense poison plant shrub germination.

​​Reference point 10 is an sandy upland plain consisting of sandy kwongan deep sand and rock sheoak on sand over gravel. Before the fire sand-loving low shrubs such as Banksia sphaerocarpa with the occasional Nuytsia floribunda Christmas Tree predominated. In the 2022 growing season, growth consisted of colonising native annuals, resprouting shrubs, Cowslip orchids, occasonal Red Beak, Caldenia varians and Caladenia discoidea spider orchids.
There has been a widespread growth of Austrostipa (mollis?) native grass here. This surprised me because I associated native grass meadows with indigenous firestick farming on valley soils. I also noticed the same grass growth this year on grey sandy soil at Birdwhistle Rock.

​Reference point 12 is situated on the extensive northern woodland slope was open woodland before the fire, with Wandoos on gravel and sandy soil and small patches of Red Morrel/ mallee/ Brown Mallet on mafic loamy patches. 
I found  relatively few orchids on this slope apart from a fine patch of Blue China orchids in a waterway.
Most trees have resprouted and there has been a large germination of shrubs, which form a mosaic of species corresponding to soil type
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​Loamy soil areas have germinating Red Morrel trees with loamy soil shrubs such as Solanum symonii, hopbush, and poison plants.

Poison plants, particularly Box Poison and York Road Poison germinated on gravel and sand over clay soil areas 

On deeper sands, Gyrostemon subnudis fire ephemeral shrubs germinated in 2022 but were declining in vigour in 2024.

Birdwhistle Rock is a historic site, which was a notable picnic, bird watching and wildflower spot. Noongars, shepherds, and sandalwood cutters, used the rock as a stopping place from Murramucking Well on the track to Harrismith, or to Wayluring Spring and on to Dongolocking. There was water from a spring coming from the side of the rock, which abruptly stopped after the 1968 earthquake, and a walled well that was buried by silt. A line of Noongar gnamma holes is on top of the rock.
​There are no facilities. An intense fire devastated the reserve in February 2022. Images below show aerial images before and after the fire.

​One can drive (about 31kms from Narrogin, with 12km of gravel road) via Yilliminning Rock, or Boundain North Road past The old Yilliminning townsite and reserve.

Unlike the Yilliminning Rock inselberg, the Birdwhistle granite outcrop has extensive geological fractures and an east - west trending dolerite dyke on the southern side.  As a result there was patchy vegetation cover over much of the rock , which was full of dead trees and weeds from decades without any fire. A bomb waiting to go off.
The 2022 wildfire was so intense that it split rocks and caused the equivalent of thousands of years of rock 'weathering' in a single event.
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​The rock is roughly an inverted U shape, with a central valley flowing south.
On the western side of the car park is a 40 ha triangle of grass tree kwongan, which is private property.

​Some good news about the fire is that it was so intense that most wild oat seeds were incinerated, which gave native plant species a chance to reestablish. The bad news is bird and animal destruction, although they will gradually recolonise from the adjoining unburnt section of Birdwhistle Nature Reserve.
There was little plant cover in 2022 apart from some fire colonising species, moss, limited tree / shrub regrowth, and some orchids. Caladenia flava, Caladenia integra, and lots of Pyrorchis nigricans.

By mid April 2023 there has been prolific regrowth of wandoos, which are over a metre in height / diameter and prolific seedling growth of acacias, Kennedyia prostrata, rock sheoak and other species. A funky post fire coloniser Gyrostemon subnudis and Stypandra glauca / Lamb Poison native lily are particulary prolific.There will be a mass of blue Lamb Poison flowers this spring, and it will be interesting to see how many orchids flower this year.

with each succeeding year new plant species will become promininent until a balance is reached in about a decade. This blog shows images of the regrowth at a number of sites.

The reserve is 52 km east of Narrogin. Drive on Yilliminning Road, turn right on to Line Road (gravel) past the old Toolibin townsite and park next to the old dam at the  Wedin North Road Intersection. 

​Most of the reserve is on either side of Wedin North Road. There is a small section adjoining Wedin Road on the south side of the railway line, which adjoins a large area of salmon gum -  wandoo bush on private property. Ruins in the bush are  remains of the abandoned Jensen farmhouse (visiting not permitted).
The reserve has very smooth landscape, which is typical of the area. From a ridge at the highest point at the north-west corner, the land slopes smoothly down to open forest flats adjoining Line Road. Vegetation changes due to slight and usually unnoticeable changes in slope or soil type form a mosaic with many different types of wildflowers. Blue lines show old drains to the dam. They can be handy in finding your bearings in the bush.

Numbers shown in Map 3 show spots of interest.

Spot 1 is mainly an open Wandoo sand over clay flat, which is the best orchid country. Look for ​Caladenia hirta subsp rosea / Pink Candy Orchid Caladenia polychroma / Josephs Spider type orchids, Caladenia falcata / Fringed mantis orchid. Caladenia flava / cowslip orchid, greenhood orchids, sun orchids and a leek orchid.

Spot 2 on the western corner has a beautiful mosaic of sand over gravel kwongan shrubland interspersed with patches of lovely spindly Eucalyptus albida. To visit this spot you can park in an old gravel pit on the eastern side.  

If you follow the second drain from the west, you will come to spot 3 where  the slope changes  from the valley to the ridge. This is scenic country, which is dotted with flowering shrubs in spring. 

Spot 4 is a fire access track at the top of the reserve with a wide range of kwongan shrubs which change and alternate with mallee scrub as you drive along the track. I found purple enamel orchids near the eastern end.

Spot 5 is  Red Morrell - mallee open forest with few understorey shrubs growing on dolerite clay loam soil, which adjoins ironstone gravel with scattered gravel pits.

To view a google Photos album of Wedin wildflowers click this link