Kuitpo Forest

Yesterday a group of home schoolers met up at the Chookarloo Campground within Kuitpo forest, which is a plantation forest in the Mt Lofty ranges about a half hour drive from Adelaide.

“Established in 1898, Kuitpo was the first of a number of forest plantations in the Mt Lofty ranges to ensure a sustainable timber resource for South Australia.

Today, Kuitpo covers and area of some 3,600 hectares, of which 60% is softwood plantation.Kuitpo’s plantations yield some 25,000 cubic metres of timber each year, valued in excess of $1.5 million.

Kuitpo is modelled as a community forest, managed for sustainable commercial forestry, while providing for the conservation of native flora and fauna and community use for recreation.” 

~ Forestry SA pamphlet

There are great places to camp, so we hope to head back that way when we’re ready to travel.

We had a campfire and some of the families cooked lunch in the coals. We discovered that throwing dry eucalypts leaves on the fire was quite spectacular which lead to us chatting about  wind, heat, fire safety and bush fires.

Of course we toasted marshmallows, set a few on fire and got pretty smoky and sticky.

Certain children (all four of mine and 2 others) had fun making a mud slide into the little creek. We’d come prepared with a change of clothes, which was a good thing because they were needed. It was lovely to spend some time chatting and playing and we’re gradually making new friends, which is something that isn’t always easy and does take some time.

I always say that the dirtiest child is usually the one who had the most fun. This time the fun factor was rather high. Everyone needed a shower when we got home and we were all nicely tired and ready to sleep at bedtime.

Tangari Regional Park – Woodcroft South Australia

Today we went on a nature walk with some other home schooling families in the Tangari Regional Park. It is about 60 hectares of native woodland which contains large sections of remnant vegetation and gives a good idea of what the Adelaide plains would have looked like before European settlement in the 1830′s. We had Jason with us from Natural Resources Management who shared his local knowledge with us. It was such a great time and kids and adults alike all learned something.

We learned to identify some native grasses and trees, as well as some weeds. This is a weed:

While this next one is not. The easy way to tell the difference is the shape of the seed heads. This native grass is called Kangaroo Grass (themeda triandra)

Next up is acacia pycnantha, whose common name is Golden Wattle. It’s Australia’s floral emblem. It isn’t in flower at the moment but is known for it’s bright yellow (hay fever inducing) blossoms. We also learned that the Kaurna people (the local indigenous people) called it the ‘shut up’ tree. For children who talked too much, they would use the leaves (I think) to make their mouths go dry so they’d stop talking so much. When the acacia pycnantha is young it’s leaves look like pigs ears.

 

This little easily missed plant is a Sundew (drosera). It’s is carnivorous plant and likes to eat insects. If you look up close you can see little sticky hairs on it’s leaves.

Then we learned about Kangaroo Thorn or acacia paradoxia. The Kaurna people used the thorns from this plant to cure warts, by sticking the spines into the warts. We don’t seem to have a photo of this one.

We learned about the importance of tree hollows for bats and birds, and that there are about 8 species of bats in South Australia. I didn’t know this, and have never seen one here. Tree hollows only form in very old trees, and so many native vertebrate species are now threatened partly because of land clearing.

Someone found this moth casing.

And we saw a big ants nest:

We also compared native and non-native pine. This first picture is non-native, and the second one is a native pine. (I’m not sure but I think it is Callitris columellaris)

We took a close look and compared a couple of gum trees to learn how to identify a Blue Gum. I am now a little muddled about the ones we looked at, but here are  the various nuts:

There was wildlife around too. Along with the common Magpies, we saw Rosellas, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, a single Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo and while we didn’t see one, there was evidence of echidna diggings.

A few minutes drive down the road (on Tripodi Road, Woodcroft for locals who might want to see it), is this massive Red Gum, estimated to be about 400 years old. It’s right in the middle of suburbia, and crosses the boundary of someone’s house so they have fenced right up to it on either side. There’s a tiny reserve the size of a house block, presumably to protect this grand old tree. It’s nice to know it wasn’t just cut down to make space for one more house in the development.