Wild Windellama
by Paul Alessi
May 2007
African Lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula)
This weed from Southern Africa was thought to have been brought
to Australia by accident before 1900 and later deliberately
imported
as a pasture grass. It is now a declared prohibited plant in most
districts and is
common almost everywhere I care to look, most of us know what
Serrated Tussock looks like but hardly anyone I speak to can pick
this one,
it DOES resemble our GOOD native Poa Tussock so please take the
time get familiar with African Lovegrass before it becomes a huge
problem here
in Windellama, also you don't want to waste time and money
spraying out your native Poa.
African Lovegrass is in seed at the moment (Autumn) and the
native Poa is not,
native Poa tussock mostly seeds in December/January, African
Lovegrass can set seed
at any time in response to rain.
It is becoming the dominant species in many areas of Sydney and
Canberra and
no one seems to be doing anything to control it.
If you want to know what African Lovegrass looks like it's the
most common
tussocky grass at the Oallen Ford camping area and likewise the
paddock next to the drive
thru at McDonalds North Goulburn has been totally taken over by
it.
If you have internet
access have a look at these photos in colour at www.wild.windellama.com
as the colour of the plant alone will help you identify African
Lovegrass
Platypus
(Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
I finally saw my frist Platypusses (or is that Platypie) in the
wild the other day,
they were in the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve about 40km south west
of Canberra,
an area absolutely devastated by the Canberra fires a few years
ago. It was great
to see so much wildlife there although the landscape is still
very much in the early
stages of recovery.
Most of us would probably know the basic facts about Platypus so
I won't bore you with
that (this time) but I am interested in any that you might have
seen either
recently or in past times, I've been told that they are often
spotted in the Shoalhaven River
around Oallen Ford and that's good to know but it's the creeks in
Windellama that I'm
mainly interested in, i.e. Nerrimunga, Nadgigomar, Windellama and
Budjong Creeks.
The only reports of Platypus in the Nerrimunga Creek that I have
heard are from about
about 20 years ago and last year I found what looks to be a
Platypus burrow
about one metre above the current stream height but it was
deserted and most likely very old
as Platypus like to make their burrows just above water level.
Maybe Platypus are still
there in our creeks and maybe you have seen one, please contact
me if you have.
Copyright Paul Alessi 2007