^{Crowdy Bay National Park}

Crowdy Bay Memories

A Journey Through Time by the Great-Nephew of the famed "Man on the Headland", by Australian Poet Kylie Tennant 

Background

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Intro

Peter Metcalfe is the son of George Metcalfe, nephew of Tim and Harry Metcalfe, Peter's uncles who lived their whole lives at Glenlea. All that generation of Metcalfes has now died. Tim was the last, killed in 2003 in a traffic accident. 

Peter's brother John now owns half the original Glenlea so the family still have links there. Kylie Tennant's "The Man on the Headland" was Peter's great-uncle Ernie, and he has written a little about him too.

Peter Metcalfe is currently an NPWS Community Education Officer 

See A Close-Up of the Kylie's Hut/Kylie's Lookout area of the Park

Peter summarised this visit to the old Glenlea property as "It was only a brief visit in poor weather but it was a great experience at a number of different levels of consciousness. The past and the present were woven together very pleasantly with two present generations of Metcalfes interacting with the ghosts of the previous generations"

The weekend down at "Glenlea" was very pleasant despite all the rain. In reality we could have stayed home and had a miserable time in all the rain at Armidale where Dumaresq Creek flooded for the first time in many years.

There were times between the showers when my sister-in -law Gail and I, and also cousin Pat, were able to go bird watching and botanising along the local tracks. The birds were a bit sparse but eventually our list grew to over 50 species. Perhaps the highlight for the weekend was the Scarlet Honeyeater in the Bloodwood flowers in the gully at Diamond Head. They were practically silent but just a few silvery tinkling calls alerted us to their presence. One male in particular obliged by flittering about in the sun as he fed from the large creamy blossoms. They really are a brilliant colour and quite breathtaking when in a shaft of sunlight among the dark green leaves and with a backdrop of bright blue sky. I may have merely been imagining it but I thought I heard the bell-like call of a Scarlet Honeyeater this morning in the drizzle at Dumaresq. 

That would be a first for "Yangoora" but the morning rain and poor light deterred me from getting up with binocs to confirm the sighting. However, I was quite sure that I did hear the first Satin Flycatcher for the season this morning. On reflection the "Scarlet Honeyeater" was probably the high notes of a suitably distant Grey Fantail.

There was not much in the way of nectar sources other than the Bloodwoods so they had attracted Yellow-faced Honeyeaters and also the Lewin along with the argumentative Noisy Friarbird and the Little Wattlebird. Elsewhere we saw many White-cheeked Honeyeaters which are characteristic of the heathlands. We also saw a small flock of Brown-headed Honeyeaters but they are not as interesting to watch as the aerobatic White-cheeked.

There was one particular tree quite a distance from the track which caught our eye by the concentration of bird activity. There were small birds that took a while to identify. They fluttering out from the tree acrobatically and snapping up small flying insects that must have been swarming near the tree. They were too small to be honeyeaters and their tumbling flight disguised their true shape so it took us a while to positively identify them as Superb Bluewrens. They were behaving in such an un-wrenlike manner it was hard to believe that these dervishes were actually secretive little birds with that characteristic cocked tail. They were joined by the true aerial foragers; White-cheeked Honeyeaters, and later some swallows came to harvest what must have been a dense swarm of insects.

Probably the best wildflowers were up in the heath on the north face of Diamond Head. the plants are just calf height and the colours are more intense in the bright sunlight. We saw the same species flowering in the sheltered edges of the heath down towards Coralville and they all seemed to be paler in colour. The mauve Scaevola put on a good show and there were many Flag iris to be seen. The Fringe Lily was also common. They are such beautiful and delicate flowers that they always catch the eye, even after you have seen hundreds along the track. I was luck enough to see one that was in the process of opening and the fringed edge was still in-rolled towards the centre of the petal to give a strange 3D effect to the flower.

Around the old Metcalfe family property there were at least two male and two female Koels so day and night their whooping calls and frantic piping formed a backdrop to our television- and radio- free environment. They probably like the dense cover and feed provided by two very large fig trees near the house. 

Two males were chasing around the figs and nearly ran into me as I inadvertently stood in their normal flight path. It scared me abut they obviously got a shock too. For such big noisy birds they are surprisingly hard to see when they sit still, perched in their usual places of concealment. A nicer call around the hut was that of the Pied Butcherbird. On reflection the calls are a different dialect to the beautiful melodious call of the inland birds who begin with the "da-da-da-DA" of Beethoven's 5th. Even so their call at Glenlea ranks with the Grey Thrush for richness.

Satin Bowerbirds and Figbirds also came to the figs through out the day. Nice to see the Figbirds doing what their name implies. There is a well constructed bower just metres from the caravans that shelter in under the huge old privet trees. We saw a male and a female close to the bower even though the breeding season is probably over by now.

The fig trees have heaps of privets under them but there are a few other native plants brought in by the fruit eating birds. Lawyer Vine, Wombat Berry and Tuckeroo are all bird transported. There are sure to be others there too. When we eventually kill off the privet we will have to be careful to leave all the natives. John has plans to put a sweep of rainforest species around the house to join up the existing big figs. One huge spreading Port Jackson fig is of special significance because Dad planted it in the top of a huge stump when he was a young man. The stump lasted into my youth but it has rotted away completely to leave a free standing fig that must be at least 20 metres across. 

There is good regeneration, mainly privets unfortunately, under the two huge Turpentines that I recall as standing by themselves beside a small cow bail. One of them bears the scars of a lightning strike spiralling down the twisted grain. As Uncle Harry tells the story his Uncle Ernie (Kylie Tennant's "Man on a Headland") was standing in the door way looking out at the storm when the bolt of lightning struck the nearby Turpentine. Instead of commenting on his close shave he merely said "I wouldn't like to split that one for posts, his grain is too crooked."

In the evening I watched three or four Spine-tailed Swifts scythe back and forth through the air space over the clearing near the house. Such magnificent fliers in the gathering dusk. How can they see their tiny prey at that speed? They must be eating insects all the time to maintain that high level of energy expenditure. As I watched them I also puzzled over the problem of safely catching an insect when flying at over 100 kilometres per hour. It must be like catching a bullet. They would have to clamp their beak shut on it or it would slam into the back of the throat, a delicate surface I should imagine. Perhaps in Swifts it is armour plated especially for the purpose.

Another species that I rarely see was the Yellow or Little Thornbill. They were easy to see as they are brightly coloured and actively feeding in a flock in the fresh green young leaves of eucalypt saplings. There were also Striated Thornbills flocking in the Eucalypts mixed in with Variegated Bluewrens. I particularly like the Variegated Bluewren as I do not see them around the New England. Their blue cap is particularly brilliant but, being red-green colour-blind I do not see the red patch on their back as vividly as you would.

Walking along the road to Diamond Head allowed us to see quite a variety of birds and it was a pleasure to get a good look at a Leaden Flycatcher hunting in the undercanopy of the scribbly gums. Such an elegant little bird in basic grey and white with a touch of cinnamon on the throat. There was a Mistletoe bird in the same area and eventually we realised that there were many mistletoe plants in the different trees. 

Possibly the most interesting was the species Notothixos subaureus which is exclusively parasitic on other mistletoes. We could see how some of the bigger bunches of ordinary (Amyema) mistletoe looked poor and sparse because they were being drained by the super-parasite.

Below:  These almost-lovely mistletoe along the Kylie's Loop Trail just south of the trig station at Diamond Head

Photos:  siteware

One of the tracks on the western edge of the Crowdy Bay National Park goes to a long waterhole that is lined with tall reeds and big tropical waterlilies. There were also bright yellow flowers of the Frogsmouth, an aquatic plant which has flowers that resemble the beaks of open birds. I think the name should be "Frogmouth" as the bird definitely has a yellow lining to the mouth and opens its beak wide as a threat when disturbed. Come to think of it I have never seen a frog with its mouth open so the flower is definitely not a "frog's mouth". 

The pond looks quite beautiful and it takes a bit to realise that it has straight sides and was actually the dredge pit from the sandmining days in the 50s. It looked as if it should have ducks and grebes on it and herons in the reeds but there were no water birds at all. We had gone there in the hope of adding to the bird list. Not in the rain but in dry times this would be a great place to wait for birds to come in the evening for a drink and a bath. The track then continues on beyond the pool to a destination unknown. Worth exploring on her mountain bike Gail thinks.

It was annoying to find that someone had dumped garden rubbish beside the track and initiated an infestation of Wandering Jew. There was feral gladiolus there too. Ironically they had left behind a label from a foreign cypress tree; evidence of the policy of destroying the natives round the house to make way for exotics. We found a number of Bitou seedlings scattered along the tracks and pulled them out symbolically. I was musing at morning tea this morning about the fate of Australia if the continent had magically escaped discovery until today. Would our process of colonisation be any kinder to the native inhabitants than it was 200 years ago? In theory we know the right things to do. However, I suspect that we would be overcome by greed and destroy the biodiversity of this incredible land buy our acts of selfishness in pursuit of short term profits.

Probably the most interesting, if not the most beautiful, plant I saw was an albino form of Dipodium variegatum, the leafless Hyacinth Orchid. I have never seen an albino Dipodium before but I suppose an entirely saprophytic plant can afford to be without pigment. It is a wonder that albinos have not been reported before. The normal hyacinth orchid, with a green stem and pink spotted flowers is common along the coast. It is an impressive plant because it produces a magnificent stem of flowers 50 to 100 cm tall without any leaves to collect energy from the sunlight

Hop Bush and Sun Orchids

The bush where I remember walking freely as a child is now extremely dense, as indicated by the three or so Whip Birds that live there. It would be a difficult and unpleasant task to push through the bush now. Much of the undergrowth consists of Hop Bush and bracken fern. On one Hop Bush I noticed two rather impressive grubs, rather like Emperor Gum Moth larvae with numerous brightly coloured "prickles" over their body. They have an odd angular shape that tends to dissuade the eye from seeing a "caterpillar" shape attached to the plant. 

The eye wants to interpret the object as a half chewed leaf. This shape camouflage would be the first line of defence and the harmless prickles would be the second line of defence against any critter that came close enough to see this thing was not a chewed leaf but a grub. I can only think that even a half grown grub of, say 4 cm long, would be too much for the little wrens and thornbills that live in this dense bush. However, they would be able to kill and eat the young grubs of this species.

At the moment the system is unbalanced in favour of the Hop Bush and there are not enough hop-bush-eaters to keep the species in check. The only serious pest of the Hop Bush seemed to be a particularly big round wax scale. These scale are round and glossy and almost look like fruit clustered on the stem, rather like the fruits of a bottlebrush.

Pat was quite taken by the dead stem of a Sun Orchid that still had the dried capsules intact. She looked at them closely and commented on how perfect they were with their slotted ribs and walls. Even after several months these delicate structures were complete and showed how the tiny seeds would have been exposed to the wind for dispersal. 

Normally I do not give such seed pods a second look but Pat recognised their innate functional beauty and insisted on taking this small treasure back to be given a place of honour on Nanna Metcalfe's shrine to the Virgin Mary. Nanna was very religious and prayed every day at her little shrine. Tim and Harry kept the shrine intact as a memorial to their mother for these last forty years, even though they themselves are not religious people.

Banksias

This is a great place for Banksias as there are five species growing close together in a diverse natural area. Veteran Old Man Banksia serrata and B. integrifolias are quite common and the occasional B. robur can be seen, with its massive leaves, in the swamp. There has been a massive regeneration of B. ericifolia along the western edge of the plains. At present they are three to four metres tall and line the track so densely as to make you feel hemmed in as if walking in a maze at an English castle. 

The young plants already have some seed stored in cones that are just one or two years old. It is easy to see how it would be possible to discriminate against this species by burning every year or so for "fire prevention". This species requires a few years to build up the seed bank before it is safe to put another fire through the area and kill off the young plants.

(All Photos this page courtesy siteware)

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