Hamilton Hill bushwalk

Sunday’s bushwalk was around the former Manning Estate south of Fremantle. This area originally belonged to one of the early pioneer farming families in W.A.  We met outside the Azelia Ley Homestead and proceeded to do a roundabout route with many up and down stretches on crumbling limestone tracks. I really wish I’d taken my poles! We had a good turnout of about 20 people; I think the idea of it being a shorter than usual walk attracted more participants (such as myself).

There were some panoramic lookouts, including the former South Fremantle Power Station. It has been decommissioned, but is now listed on the Western Australian State Register of Heritage Places with its Art Deco Industrial Design.

It has stood empty since 1985 “home only to urban explores and street artists”. One of our group said the graffiti paintings were excellent.

These are some of the wildflowers we saw:

No-one had ever seen this one before and we wondered if it was an introduced weed:

We passed by the ruins of another of the original farm buildings, quite spacious and luxurious for its time, but it was burned down in a fire that swept through the area:

Over lunch, Lutz entertained us by describing his grandmother’s method of making sauerkraut in order to preserve cabbage throughout the winter, when no fresh vegetables were available. She had a special pot to ferment the mixture and kept it in the cellar, where it was cold but not too cold. This story reminded me of my own grandfather who was a POW in Germany in the First World War. He said they all had to live on cabbage and potatoes and furthermore the guards were on the same diet.

Rats

There is a self-seeded fig tree in the garden at Como. Over the years we have enjoyed figs every February: till last year. In one week an abundant crop was decimated: in fact, every fig disappeared before we could pick any! Rats ran along the top of the fence and onto the tree. They must have alerted all their friends to come and feast. 

This year, it’s not going to happen! I went round to Como to help C prune the tree into a more manageable shape:

C about to prune the tree


Big pile of clippings 

Then it was off to Bunnings to buy some netting. We pondered for a while as to what size to buy, ending up with 4m x 10m. When we got it home, it took a while to stretch it out from the tightly bound up roll. It was definitely a 2-man job to wrap the tree. C brought out two ladders and did the wrapping, whilst I held the netting and fed it out to her:

The finished product

Rats can now dine elsewhere: we hope!

Wireless Hill

Yesterday was a lovely still and sunny day, so I made the most of it by driving up to Wireless Hill, our nearest wildflower reserve.

General view of the reserve

At this time of year, everyone starts looking for orchids. These are few and far between, so you have to walk slowly along the paths, glancing carefully from side to side. JL was much better at spotting them, having grown up in the country where he and his sister used to pick bunches of them for their mother.

Cowslip orchids


These spider orchids are my all-time favourites but I didn’t manage to find any:



These were the most prolific:

Donkey Orchids



Kangaroo Paw

Native violets

Parrot Bush

Running Postman

Zamia Palm

As I was about to leave the reserve, I was rewarded by the sight of two blue-tongue lizards sunning themselves just beside the track. I must have spooked one of them and he slowly moved away to hide: