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
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


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.
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
Loamy soil areas have germinating Red Morrel trees with loamy soil shrubs such as Solanum symonii, hopbush, and poison plants.