This was a walk of the National Parks Association of NSW. It was organised by Brian Everingham, but at last minute he was unable to attend. But we still completed the walk and had a very interesting and enjoyable outing. In the party was – Deb, Sue, Pam, Jitka and myself.
We met at Waterfall Station and then travelled to the start of the walk at the south end of Lady Carrington Drive by two cars. We then set off around the loop walk of the Forest Path in the clockwise direction.
Brian had advertised the walk as “Orchids and Fungi”, and after only a very short distance we saw our first orchid – a Nodding Greenhood (Pterostylis nutans). We soon noticed more nearby, and a lot more all along the first part of the track. We saw quite a few other orchids during the day, but this one was the most abundant.
We soon noticed another species of orchid – Acianthus fornicatus. And not long after, another species of Greenhood Orchid – Pterostylis grandiflora. There was also a third species of Greenhood Orchid, Pterostylis longifolia, which has a number of flowers on the one stalk.
The fungi was not as abundant. Early on we found a small cluster of Cortinarius austrovenetus. But we didn’t find many other until we got close to Bola Creek.
At one point, we followed a short side track down to the Hacking River. It was quite high due to the recent rain.
As we continued around the loop, the number of orchids declined and we saw very few on the north side as we approached Bola Creek. This may be due to there being more rainforest on that side. We also noticed a lot of white fallen flowers. We could not see any shrubs in flower close by, so we looked up into the trees. With the aid of Pam’s book we found the white flowers had fallen off the tall Sassafras trees.
We heard a lot of birds as we continued on the path, but needed Brian to be present to confirm our identifications. Deb noticed the ground cover had been dug up along part of the track, and sure enough, a short way further along we spotted a foraging Lyrebird.
We stopped for lunch at the picnic table at Bola Creek.
We then spent some time looking for fungi. I know the fungi at Bola Creek particularly well and this includes good places to look. We did not find very much out however. I thought it was too soon after the rain. Perhaps the next week or two may be better? Most of what we found were fairly old waxcaps – members of the family Hygrophoraceae. These colourful fungi seem to like the cold conditions at the end of the fungi season for their fruiting.
The fungi may have been better one along the Wallumurra Track, but with the high water in Bola Creek it would have been tricky to cross.
We then made our way along the short section of Lady Carrington Drive back to the carpark. It was along here that we spotted our fourth species of Greenhood Orchid. This one was Pterostylis curta
