September 2016 Newsletter

Transcription

1 President: Dave Liddle Vice President: Russell Dempster Secretary: Ingrid Nadjarian Treasurer: Robyn Liddle Publicity: vacant Publications: Sarah Hirst Public Officer: Helen Spiers Librarian: Ian Morris General Committee Members: Lon Wallis Will Kemp September 2016 Newsletter General Meeting Times The next TENPS meeting will be held on Thursday September 15 th Meetings are usually held at 7:30 pm on the third Thursday of each month at Marrara Christian College, on the corner of Amy Johnson Avenue and McMillans Road. The meeting is followed by a chance to chat with other members and access the TENPS reference Library over a cuppa. Bring your plants along to swap, sell or have identified. The guest speaker presentation commences around 8pm. All are welcome. Field trips are usually on the weekend following the meeting. Details of upcoming events are provided in the newsletter, or check the TENPS website. What s in Flower? Webmaster: Dave Liddle PO Box 135 Palmerston NT 0831 Or us: topendnativeplantsociety@hotmail.com Owenia vernicosa photographed at Darwin River by Sarah Hirst. Natives mean more!

2 Upcoming TENPS guest speakers September 15 th : Central Australia s green deserts. Dave Liddle will share with us his recent trips to the Tanami and Simpson Desert in what has been an exceptional season. October 20 th : TBA November 17 th : AGM + Ian Morris TBA TENPS Field Trips & other events September, Saturday 18 th : A Darwin River Ramble - the Ebsworth s will host a visit to their property on the Darwin River. Meet at 8.30am on the corner of Darwin River Rd and Old Bynoe Rd before moving to their Reedbeds Rd property. Don t forget covered shoes and hat, it is likely to be hot! NT Field Naturalist Club Events Meetings are held at 7.45pm on the second Wednesday of each month except January in the Function Room, Level 3, Red Precinct 1 at Charles Darwin University Casuarina Campus. The AGM is on Wednesday 14 th September and Geoff Carr will be sharing his love of stargazing with members afterwards. Field Trips are a great way to explore the best of Darwin area's nature spots in the company of likeminded people. These are usually held on the Sunday following the monthly meeting and often related to the topic of this meeting. Additional outings are held from time to time, and everyone is welcome. September Field Trip: Saturday 24 th. Territory Wildlife Park - camp overnight and spend an evening stargazing with Geoff Carr and spotlighting for wildlife. Please contact NTFNC to book. October, Saturday 22 nd : Wangi walk with Russell Dempster. Meet at Coolalinga at 8.30 or Wangi kiosk at 10am. TENPS AGM: 17 November 2016 Next Committee Meeting Committee meetings are held every second month and members are most welcome to attend. The next committee meeting will be at 7.30pm on Wednesday 5 th October, at the Palmerston Electorate Office in Palmerston. Persoonia falcata photographed at Darwin River by Sarah Hirst. Memberships are now due! A reminder to all our members that 2016/17 memberships are now due. Thank you to those who have already renewed, we appreciate your ongoing support. Payment details are shown on the membership form on the back of this newsletter if you would like to pay by electronic transfer. If you will not be renewing your membership, please let us know so we don t send further reminders. If you think we could improve the society for you, we would also love to hear your feedback. us at topendnativeplantsociety@hotmail.com Threatened Species Day at the Darwin Waterfront The Waterfront again hosted a pop up zoo on Saturday 10 September to recognise Threatened Species Day. Organised by Territory Wildlife Park, the day commemorates the anniversary of the death of the last captive Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine on September 7, This event, held on the Saturday to maximise attendance, raises awareness of threatened species and conservation iniatives that support them. TENPS were there on the day displaying the recently released maps of threatened plants along with a range of native plants for sale. 2

3 The day was well attended by many young families (above) keen to see the animals, but there were also conversations about threatened species and conservation efforts (below). Article by Sarah Hirst, photographs by Russell Dempster. August Meeting Report Walking the Kokoda Trail with Zig Madycki. Zig walked the Kokoda Trail in May 2009 and gained a better understanding what his father had to deal with as a soldier during the war in the Kokoda area. Zig took the 9 day option so he could see and appreciate the area with a pack weighing 18kg compared to the 36kg pack his father carried. During the war the local Koiari people were known as the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and carried for the troops who covered the trail distance in 7 days carrying 25 pound guns! Apparently if a guide doesn t look after their assigned trekker properly they will not be asked to work again and many people rely on this work to support their families. The official name is Kokoda Trail not Kokoda Track. It is 96km long and crosses the mountains via the Kokoda Pass a 2190m high mountain pass that is also used by aircraft to cross the mountain peaks. The walk can be undertaken in either direction by flying in to Kokoda and walking to Owers Corner or being trucked in to Owers Corner from Port Moresby and a flight back from Kokoda. This maximises the number of people using the track during the walking season. Zig took the truck up to Owers Corner which was a hair-raising trip up a steep narrow two wheel dirt track. He took lots of photos during the trip but on the truck ride as he was too busy hanging on! They visited the well maintained War Cemetery in Port Moresby where thousands of troops are buried, most of them Australian. Zig stressed the need for trekkers to train before taking on this trail. People should understand the terrain, cycling or stair climbing is not the way to train for it as nothing about this trail resembles steps it is steep, muddy and uneven with many protruding tree roots (below). These days each trekker is assigned a local porter who carries up to 15kg of gear for you along with the cooking equipment and their own gear. The porters/guides need to help their assigned trekker, even helping them cross the rivers (below) which, as an experienced walker, Zig found a bit difficult to handle! 3

4 Zig did several cross country hikes around Mary River during the Wet Season which was much better preparation. It is a gruelling trip and trekkers do die on the trail. In the weeks before Zig walked two relatively young trekkers died from exhaustion, and two more died in the following months plus the loss of 9 people in a plane crash near Kokoda in August of the same year. However, some amazing feats are also achieved with an 83 year old who walked the trail in October 2009 and former Paralympian, Kurt Fearnley, who crawled the entire 96 kilometres in 11 days! Some people walk the trail in 3 days just so they can say they have done it, but you wouldn t actually see anything at that pace. Camp 1 is an area originally levelled for Dump 66, an old military camp with a store and medical centre. Camp facilities are basic with some open shelters and pit latrine toilets maintained by the Kokoda Trail authority. Trekkers carry their own water or collect it along the way. Zig did not carry much water; he relied on running streams away from local villages and camps where water may be contaminated so also he did not worry about treating it. There is lots of rain and streams run muddy after showers but usually clear quickly. The first part of the trail crosses a grassy area which seems to be kept clear of forest, possibly by burning. It is a 3 hour trek down to the Goldie River which has no bridge and trekkers have to wade across it (below). From there the pattern continued; down and up (below), down and up! Determination and focus are essential with between 300 and 600 meters change in vertical elevation and between 5 and 9 hours solid walking each day, except for the first and last day when there is also the flight or truck journey. The forest is very close and so visibility is limited. Many plants in PNG appear to be the same or closely related to those in North Queensland including Ficus racemosa, Orthosiphon aristatus (cat s whiskers), Hoya pottsii a species of Melastoma (above), and what appeared to be a Smilax australis and a Caryota spp. (fishtail palm). Epiphytic tree orchids were also common but not flowering at that time of year. Several large clumps of orchids had fallen to the forest floor where they simply rot away. Huge staghorn ferns (Platycerium superbum) (above) and birds nest ferns (Asplenium sp) thrive in the forest canopy and on the ground ferns Zig recognised such as Dicranopteris linearis (below) and others that looked like Blechnum and Lygodium species. 4

5 to cross the Brown River and the rivers closer to Kokoda. A rope was also strung across the river but this was too loose to hold on to and is only to stop people being washed away if they fall in (below). The local villagers have extensive gardens in clearings but it is difficult to know what is native and what has escaped or what has survived in now abandoned gardens. Cordylines and crotons (Codiaeum variegatum) are common additions to most gardens. There was evidence of scrub fowl but none were seen and very few birds or other wildlife was seen. The Map Butterfly was one of the few animals seen as they landed on the trekkers sweaty clothes for the salt. A good thing was that there were no leeches or mosquitoes, although at Malaria is a problem at times and mosquito nets are required. The hut at Ioribaiwa was thatched with the traditional roofing material called Tiger Grass (Thysolaena sp). Most of the local huts now use blue plastic tarps which are cheap and easy to replace. Ioribaiwa was the furthest point that the Japanese troops advanced. They suffered the loss of thousands of troops both through fighting and as Australian soldiers blocked their supplies. Many also died from botulism as Australian soliders would puncture tinned foods and the starving Japanese would eat them in desperation. There were also reports of cannibalism. Of troops only a few hundred survived when they were ordered to withdraw. The Australian soldiers were first referred to by the Japanese as chocolate soldiers and were expected to melt in the heat and be easily defeated by the seasoned Japanese soldiers who had been fighting the Chinese for 7 years, but the Australians were mostly from rural areas and they proved to be tough and resourceful. Water supplies for the villages are mostly piped in from streams higher up the mountain. A variety of crops are grown by villagers include bananas and peanuts. Efogi village is the halfway point of the trail, there is actually two villages Efogi 1 and 2. Local villages operate businesses including guest houses for trekkers to create income. The last surviving Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel is photographed with groups of trekkers (below) to provide income for his village of Naduri. The mountain forest near Naduri is a cloud forest with curtains of lichen hanging from the branches. As they approached the Brown River the land is swampy floodplain and logs are laid along the track to prevent bogging. Tree trunks are used 5

6 Supersized plants such as the huge stilt root Pandan Pandanus brosimus (below) were impressive in the valleys, note the tiny person at the base of one of these plants for scale. Grevillea longicuspis photographed by Sarah Hirst. Trees that fall along the trail are not cleared and trekkers need to navigate a new path around them, and in some places the trail is badly eroded. The giant banana Musa ingens with a trunk almost half a meter in diameter and up to 8 meters tall were surprisingly well hidden in the thick forest (below). Considering the size of the plant the fruit were rather unimpressive! Brachychiton megaphyllus photographed by Sarah Hirst. We thank Zig for sharing his experiences on this great trail; one that I suspect quite a few of us will not get to see for ourselves! Article by Sarah Hirst, photos by Zig Madycki. Cochlospermum fraseri ripe fruit photographed by Sarah Hirst at Darwin River. 6

7 SUBSCRIPTION FORM ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP (DUE 1 JULY) Please accept my subscription/renewal for membership of the Top End Native Plant Society. New membership. Renewal Name/s... address.... Please Note: The electronic edition of the newsletter will be uploaded to the member s page of the website each month and members will be notified by (Acrobat Reader is required). If you DO NOT have access and would like to receive the newsletter (black & white available only) by post please tick the box. Postal Address... Post Code... Payment Due $... ($20.00 per member/family, $15.00 unwaged) TO PAY ONLINE: Bank: People s Choice Credit Union BSB: Account Name: Top End Native Plant Society Account Number: Please include your name in the transfer reference. Or MAIL TO: TENPS Secretary, PO Box 135, Palmerston NT 0831 Signature... Date / /... TO: Sender: PO Box 135 Palmerston NT