Whistlers Rest

It's time I gave you a feel for our little town.  It won't take long because there is not much of it! You can see it comprises about six streets most of which peter out to bush tracks after one block. The housing blocks are large  .. at least a half acre each and not all built on so the houses are very spread apart. I'm told that between the villages of Clandulla and Charbon (3.5 kms away) there are only 103 postal addresses! The railway line bisecting the town is an important landmark. I'll show you some photos of the railway station (closed) our one shop (closed) and school (closed) as we go along.  There is no church, pub or community hall.  But here is a playground, oval, public toilet and tennis court (closed judging by the weeds). The green bit on the map is Clandulla State Forest. Clandulla and surrounds however have a population of about 350 people so could be considered thriving in comparison to the little towns we pass through on the way here. Whistle

There are quite a lot of shrubs across the block coming out in tiny white flowers. Before they flowered I had thought they were tea trees. When they flowered they had me stumped for a while but I eventually decided they are Bursaria Spinosa commonly known as Blackthorn and yes they do have thorns. The funny thing is the poem I chose for this blog talks of the Blue Wrens nesting in the blackthorn and I wondered what type of bush it was - now I know.  They seem to be a bit weedy but we will be keeping quite a few to provide a home for our little birds.

Back in spring there were quite a lot of these shrubs flowering but the flush of flowers has moved onto a different type of shrub which I will show you next. I don't know the exact name of this flower as there are lots of different type of yellow pea flowers in the bush but many are commonly called Eggs and Bacon

Dianella caerulea, or blue flax lily, is the pretty blue flower that I have used as the background image on this blog.  After flowering it makes these deep blue berries which are beginning to pop up around the block.  I believe they are edible but I'd rather they make seeds and more flowers.

Bluebells are a common flower in grassy spots (like along roadsides) so it is no surprise to find them here in our little patch.  I love their simplicity.

Doesn't that look sweet.  Well not quite -- that is a blackberry flower and part of a huge Blackberry thicket. One of three on the block.  There is no way we are going to be able to do anything about these prickly horrors before this fruit ripens, so it looks like we'll have Blackberry pie this year instead.

Without even a serious look I have noticed heaps of different grasses. With pasture as a neighbour I am sure some of these will be pasture grasses but others are surely the original natural varieties. Kangaroo grass (second one below) is a native but as the block has been partially cleared of trees it seems to be thriving   ... too much of a good thing?  I think the first one below might be Wallaby Grass.

St John's Wort The next time I visited I was delighted to see a flush of lovely yellow flowers until I later discovered these are the invasive weed St John's Wort.  I tried hard to prove they were a native Hypericum but the black dots on the leaf margins are apparently a dead give away. I'm told this herb is used as a natural anti-depressent whereas it only depressed me that I had to yank out as many of them as I could while the earth is moist and before they set billions more seeds which apparently last in the soil for up to 20 years. Crikey I might be still pulling these when I am almost 80.

Donkey orchid It was springtime when we inspected the property. There were so many flowers to surprise and delight us. Who could not fall in love with the orchids, pea flowers, flax lilies, rice flowers, bluebells, daisies and others with more complicated names I'm still to figure out.

Another guy not so keen on having his cosy home dismantled.

Well that got me dancing.  Fortunately the little black ones and not the bigger black and brown meat ants so the bites were minor. I guess they were unhappy about us dismantling their cosy home. I read somewhere recently that ants are indicative of healthy ecosystem.

And what was that about a "serene bushland setting".  After cutting a path through the long grass for access our next job was to remove a pile of old timber.  It seems some previous owner had dreamt of building a shack on the block but never got past piling up everything in readiness.  It was now too rotted and weathered for us to consider resurrecting their dream.

A look at the "stunning rural and mountain views" you can see over the back fence . I'm not sure how long this clear sweep of green it is going to last however as some land nearby is up for sale and I saw in the advert that it is approved for division into 5 acre lots.

It's on Canary Street and depending on the time of day and weather reverberates with the whistle of birds. Thus far I've identified the Willie Wagtail (above), Blue Wrens, Black Cockatoos and Kookaburras ... not a very adventurous selection because there is not much rest until we clear access for the van.

Wondering about the flowers mentioned in the real estate advertisement? Here's the Helichrysum (paper daisy) and the Brachycome is below. They are dotted all over the place among lots of long grass and shrubby trees. There is an astounding number of different plants on the block, including lots of different grasses. No doubt a goodly portion of them are weeds. I'm going to have my work cut out trying to identify what's what.

DESIRABLE RESIDENTIAL LAND •Beautiful bush block of approx 4,000 sqm with an assortment of naturally growing native plants inc.Helichrysum, & Brachycome. • Stunning rural and mountain views. • Serene bushland setting. • Town water is on the block and power & phone are available. • Quality residential building block in a quality location. Dunno about you but I'm sold.