This was intended to be a fungi walk – but there was not much fungi out, and what I found was old and dried out. Looks like the fungi season has ended at Wolli Creek.
Greenhood Orchid
But the wildflower season has begun, and there were still thousands of Greenhood Orchids out next to the track. Also there were lots of interesting birds around as well as the fruit bats. Continue reading
After our inspection of the pollution of Wollangambe River, I joined some of the party for a walk along part of a historic narrow gauge railway near Clarence. This started off through a tunnel, which was quite interesting. It was part of the original railway across the Blue Mountains – which was known as the Zig Zag.
The tunnel was well lined with sandstone bricks. Continue reading
Here is my attempt to photograph Comet C/2014 Q1 PanSTARRS. Conditions were far from ideal. My photo was taken from suburban Sydney. I was on my way home from a fungi photography trip – so didn’t have any special gear – I used a f 2.8 100 mm macro lens, with the camera on a tripod. A half moon didn’t help very much.
Comet C/2014 Q1 PanSTARRS
The faint smudge between the red marker lines is the comet.
It was very distressing to see first hand the terrible pollution in the Wollangambe River. I was in a group of 17 people that walked down to two points in the river from Newnes Junction last Saturday.
The map below shows where the pollution – coal fines, entered the Wollangambe River, and thus into Blue Mountains National Park and the World Heritage Area. The red arrow shows the entry point. The two red crosses show our inspection areas. The green line marks the Blue Mountains National Park boundary.
The first inspection point was about 1 km below the entry point. The whole of the riverbed appeared to be covered in a thick deposit of a black substance. The river itself had a black colour.
Polluted Wollangambe River
The sediment on the bed of the river
Our second inspection point was about 2.5 km downstream from the entry point and was at the intersection with a small side creek. This part of the National Park was burnt in a bushfire during October 2013 and there is a lot of charcoal ash around. The clear water in the side creek however demonstrates very clearly that it is not bushfire related charcoal that has coated the bottom of the Wollangambe River.
Side creek – clear water
The junction of the side creek and the Wollangambe River. The pollution extends up the side creek about 2 metres.
On 3 July 2015, the mining company was issued with a Clean-Up Notice by the Environment Proection Authority. A copy of that notice can be found here on the EPA website. To quote from that notice –
CLEAN UP ACTION 7
Aslo in that notice –
Penalty for not complying with this notice
I think the evidence in my photographs above shows that there is significant pollution remaining in the Wollangambe River. Reports from bushwalkers who have inspected the river downstream indicate that the pollution has now spread about 10 kms downstream from the entry point. And it seems likely to keep spreading further downstream!
The Colong Foundation has a webpage devoted to this issue with suggested action that the concerned public can take.
Some media releases can be found –
Centennial Coal Media Statement 30 July
Blue Mountains Gazette – 4 August
“Coal Fines” are the small particles of coal material that are “washed-off” the coal during the preparation plant process and discarded along with non-coal material and disposed of in large pools of water or ponds known as “slurry ponds”. These expansive areas of coal waste product are known as “impoundments”.
www.greenfieldscoal.com/faq2.php
I spent a pleasant day walking around some of the waterfalls to the south of Lawson and Hazelbrook in the Blue Mountains. I was also looking to see if any fungi was still out – very little was, so I ended up spending mrs time photographing the waterfalls.
Conditions were not very good for this – it was sunny and the water levels were quite low. But it is nice to be outdoors. Continue reading
I had neglected to return to Bola Creek to see how the fungi was going. Last visit the fungi had been very good, but that was late in June. There had probably been a fair bit of fungi out that I had missed – but this was due to checking out other places.
Hygrocybe collucera
So, I headed down to Bola Creek again with Digi Dave and we had a good look for fungi. A fair bit was out – but what we found was mainly quite old and dried out. Continue reading
This was a walk down Waitara Creek near Hornsby from near its source to where it joins Berowra Creek. I wanted to check out the valley for fungi.
Hygrocybe aurantipes
I started as high in the valley as I could – by entering from a track at Hammond Avenue at Normanhurst. This track was rough and a bit overgrown but had fresh footprints along it – so other walkers do use it. Continue reading
This was a very pleasant walk – around a loop along the Lane Cove River and then an exit from the valley all the way up Blue Gum Creek to Chatswood.
Gliophorus pssitacinus var. pssitacinus
I started from Macquarie Park Station and walked to the Deburgh Bridge and then followed the Riverside Track downstream to Fullers Bridge. On the way I spent a fair bit of time near Porters Creek looking for fungi. Continue reading
Birdwood Gully is at Springwood, on the other side of the railway line to Sassafras Gully. It also has an extensive track system making access very easy. But the rainforest is much more extensive in Sassafras Gully and that is perhaps why I have tended to neglect this more northern valley.
An unidentified Hygrocybe
I only spent a few hours of the morning in the gully. I entered via the track at Boland Avenue and walked down to the creek, and then along the creek and a short way up the track that goes up to Lucinda Avenue before returning the same way. Continue reading
I spent a pleasant afternoon at Wolli Creek investigating the fungi again. It is interesting to see what fungi was left and if an was newly out. It did seem that despite dry conditions a fair amount of new fungi had emerged – particularly in the area close to Turrella Reserve.
Humidicutis helicoides
Here is a selection of what I saw – Continue reading
