Foxes Lair
  • Home
  • About
    • About Foxes Lair
    • History
    • Landscape and Soils
  • Things To Do
    • Picnic Spots
    • Walk Trails
    • Visit the Arboretum
    • Ride Your Bicycle
    • Scavenger hunt
    • Geocaching and Orienteering
  • Things To See
    • Wildflowers
    • Trees in the Narrogin district
    • Birds
    • Vertebrates
    • Narrogin spiders scorpions ticks
    • Fungi and lichens
  • Foxes Lair seasonal guide
    • December to March
    • April - May
    • June-July
    • August
    • September
    • October
    • November
  • Other great reserves
    • Railway Dam
    • Yilliminning Rock
    • Old Mill Dam
    • Yornaning Dam
    • Contine Hill
    • Highbury Reserve
    • Boyagin Rock
    • Barna Mia
    • Toolibin Lake
    • Newman Block
    • Harrismith Nature Reserve
    • Candy Block
    • Tutanning Nature Reserve
  • 1Foxypress
    • Foxypress
    • Vanishing Farms
  • Contact

Foxes Lair Claypit Monitoring

12/4/2019

2 Comments

 
The Claypit is one of three picnic areas in Foxes Lair based on two shallow pits, which fill and empty seasonally. Over the years, it has been a labour of love and source of frustration.
The reason for the existence of the twin excavations is unknown, with possibilities being a brick clay quarry (unlikely as it is poor quality clay, borrow pit for adjoining Bottle Creek dam or as a soak. The initial name, Beavers Dam was also a mystery until several years after I renamed it Claypit for brevity. Ranger Guy Maley told me that he and other kids used to throw sticks in the water, which were were blown by wind into one end to resemble a beaver’s dam.
The area was converted to a picnic area because it was a magnet for off-road vehicles that created havoc on trails and in the bush elsewhere in the reserve. 

This blog records changes at the claypit over the years. It has been a challenge for the shire and volunteers, but also very satisfying to record improvements at the site.
Picture
View from road 2011
Picture
2012 the area is off road vehicle area
Picture
2019 after logs emplaced to stop vehicles
Picture
2024 facilities in place
Work began in 2016 when Tony and Deb Hughes-Owen donated bridge timbers that were emplaced by the Central South Naturalist Club to create a picnic area, and entry roads on the eastern side were blocked using falling trees. This started a battle of attrition which lasted several years. 4WD drivers breached the barriers and trashed facilities, then I would repair them and cart in tonnes of rocks, logs and soil. The tide turned after I had emplaced so many boulders that it was unsafe for 4WD activity (yay!).
Images below show a 2016 incident 
Picture
Table and trees pushed over
Picture
Sign and benches ripped out
Picture
Barrier smashed
​The famous “Claypit Challenge” arose from actions to spoil off-road vehicle fun in the pits.
I scabbed rocks, logs, and limestone blocks from a range of sources to create a stepping stone circuit for the young and young at heart. Wooden stepping stones flopped because they floated, and the shire’s insurance assessor cast an eye over and (justifiably) insisted that the logs and rocks were a safety hazard and had to go. 
Luckily I discovered a heap of cut limestone blocks at the local tip. These were carted in with my trusty ute and later supplemented with blocks donated from the shire to create today's configuration.
another source of satisfaction is revegetaion from plants that volunteered or were planted on the banks where topsoil was spread over the clay.
​
Photomonitoring is a great activity for conservation groups because it enables them to see the fruits of their labour.
Images below show the transformation of the eastern pit.
Picture
2012 kept bare by vehicles
Picture
2017 wooden stepping stones floated away
Picture
2019 mixture of stepping blocks and logs
Picture
2021 All blocks in place with help from Jimmy Dyer and Willow
Picture
Jan 2025 revegetation well underway
2 Comments
John Ewing
2/1/2025 12:05:10 am

What a journey. Your achievement is TRIUMPHAL!!!.
I shall lok forward to coming down again during this year.
Regards
John

Reply
Jeremy Lemon
3/1/2025 01:32:42 am

You always have been a very persistent fellow Doug. Persistence usually pays off as it has handsomely in this case.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Doug Sawkins is a friend of Foxes Lair 

    Categories

    All
    Animals Other
    Birds
    Disorders Plant Animal
    Fungi Lichens
    History
    Insects Bugs Other Arthropods
    Landscapes Soils
    Other Reserves And Places
    Reptiles
    Spiders Other Arachnids
    Tree
    Walks Other Facilities
    Wasp
    Wildflowers Orchids
    Wildflowers Other Summer Autumn
    Wildflowers Other Winter Spring
    Wildflowers Parasitic

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    May 2012
    March 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    April 2011

© 2015 All Rights Reserved. Doug Sawkins, Australia.