Wednesday 23 February 2022
Photos courtesy of Philip, Erika, Amanda and Karen
Narrawallee Creek Nature Reserve is an hour’s drive north of Batemans Bay, but it’s worth it to walk through some different vegetation, geology and history. The day threatened rain, but not to be deterred, and dressed in every piece of wet weather gear imaginable, 5 Batemans Bay Bushwalkers took the Mangrove Track towards Narrawallee Creek. The rain didn’t eventuate, so 2 km in, we stopped to take our rain gear off again. The Mangrove Track is low lying and was quite boggy. This whole area was very badly burned in the fires, and is taking some time to recover. Pre fires, this track was fringed by head high Tassel Cord Rush (Baloskion tetraphyllum) – now just starting to push through again.
The Mangrove Track emerges on Buckleys Beach at the creek entrance, which is a beautiful calm, clear swimming spot. There was once a wooden bridge spanning this inlet to transport silica from the nearby mine to Narrawallee Beach. The walk then heads north along the beach, which is liberally sprinkled with tiny shells, to the fascinating rocky outcrop at Buckleys Point. Here our in-house geologist pointed out fossilised worm holes and tunnels in the sandstone underfoot.
Turning inland we followed the route of an old tramway built to transport silica from the quarry to the bridge. This joined the Silica Ridge Trail which passes through the old quarry. The silica mined here from 1926 was originally used to line the blast furnaces at Port Kembla steelworks, and then used as roadbase. There’s a cutting where you can see the volcanic basalt overlying the silica band, and there’s still plenty of silica lying along the track.
From there it was a short walk back to the start. On the way we found a rare native hibiscus flower called Hibiscus richardsonii. This plant was rarely, if ever seen on the south coast, but after the bushfires it popped up sparsely and randomly in well burned soils. Thanks to Erika and Philip for braving the elements and leading us on such an interesting 13 km walk.
Karen