Red Gum Park at Bullaburra was one place I had never visited, and I had a few spare hours on Christmas Eve, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to make a visit. I found it an interesting place.
Small Tongue Orchid
I got off the train at Bullaburra, and crossed the new bridge over the highway and walked the short distance to Noble Street and down that to DeQuency Street to the track. The track was in good condition and a sign indicted the presence of a local bush care group.
Not far down the track, at a bit of a lookout, I noticed three circular shapes excavated from the sandstone. I have seen similar shapes before at Ironpot Ridge in Megalong and assumed they were of aboriginal origin. Near those ones are a lot of sharpening grooves. Perhaps the circular shapes could have been the “pots” that the ridge was named after? The Red Gum Park ones looked about the same diameter (15 cm or so). Looking online, they could be aboriginal wells. Perhaps rather than storing rainwater, they were used for cooking? Perhaps rocks heated on a fire were then immersed into water in the “wells”. There are aboriginal wells nearby at Gloria Park at Hazelbrook.
A little further down the track I found nice cluster of Bonnet Orchids.
Then I took the side track to Minnatonka Falls. These are not very high, and with a very low flow were rather underwhelming.
Minnatonka Falls
Back on the main track – more orchids. This time a nice Small Tongue Orchid.
Then through a first section to arrive at the picnic area. Here are some still serviceable picnic tables and fireplaces even though the area is a bit overgrown. Nearby were more Bonnet Orchids. In the creek was the remains of a concrete dam. According to this local history site, this was once for a swimming pool and some time after 1050, the water was too polluted by an upstream piggery and depict tanks so the wall was deliberately broken.
I finished this short walk, via the track to Boronia Road. One the way I found a big cluster of Large Tongue Orchids – another pleasant surprise.
More photos from this walk are online on my website here.
