Friends host treed to know bushwalk
INTERESTED in knowing more about the trees in the Woowookarung regional park?
The Friends of the Canadian Corridor are aiming to provide that knowledge with a tree identification slow walk on Saturday, 27 August.
The walk will be conducted by former Field Naturalists’ Club of Ballarat president John Gregurke, who said it will highlight the varied flora in the area.
“We’ll be telling people how you tell the difference between what’s on offer here between the bark, the leaves, size, things like that,” he said.
“We’re going to be looking at the eucalypts especially. There’s 10 natives growing here at least, and we want to give people the knowledge to tell them apart.
“People just drive past here and see bush or scrub, but if you know a bit about it, it makes it so much more interesting.”
Beginning at 10am at the Dementia Trail car park, the six-kilometre walk will take attendees through the Dementia Trail, Lal Lal Drain, the Lookout and Bakers Road.
The topic of the walk links to a recent FOCC guidebook, Indigenous Plants of Southern Ballarat, made in collaboration with Leigh Catchment Group and Field Naturalists’ Club of Ballarat.
Copies will be available for attendees.
FOCC secretary Jeff Rootes said he hopes the upcoming walk will become a regular activity similar to their annual wildflower walk, now in its seventh year.
“This could well turn out the same way, something like 20 or 30 trees identified over a week of walking,” he said.
“When we do our wildflower walk, we’re looking down low. Here, it’s up high and it’s really offering a different perspective on what’s around here.
“This fits with our wildflower walk, it fits with our bird count in October, our koala spotting. What to most people is just bush is actually full and alive.”