Seven members met at Victoria Park prior to starting out, to inspect our Memorial Plantation, to decide on replacement shrubs for those that had died, and to see what maintenance was necessary.

We then headed east and met Shirley near her property, We inspected an area where roadside vegetation had been cleared along a fence-line, and then went into her place where we had a short walk and saw the areas she has covenanted. We had our lunch in the comfort of her home, which was very much appreciated at this time of the year.

We next drove via the Ayrford and Thorburns Roads to the rear of the Illidge Sanctuary Annex. We went for quite a long walk there, following kangaroo tracks through the bush and then along a defined track back to the cars. A highlight was a mob of about fifty eastern grey kangaroos which had been feeding in an adjacent paddock and which returned to the Annex both under and over the boundary fence when they saw us. We had already seen plenty of evidence of their presence in the Annex. Flowering plants were scarce as were birds- A pair of Black Ducks rose from a small dam as we approached it.

From the Annex we drove round to the Sanctuary and had our afternoon tea in the comfort of the hall, after which we took the track over the bridge on the creek, retracing our steps until we came to the track to the western boundary and did the circuit loop. The only notable sightings were a Bassian Thrush and a white morph Grey Goshawk. There were several species of fungi seen, mostly fairly small.

Jill Heathcote