| Date: | 12 December 2010 |
| Time: | 9.30 am - 2 pm |
| Where: | Western Water Surbiton Park Treatment Plant, Butlers Road, Mt Cottrell |
| Contact: | Daryl Akers Ph: 9743 2495 Frances Overmars: Ph: 9748 1294 |
| Additional Info: | This will be at Bluebox Flat beside the Werribee River beside Western Water Treatment Plant at Surbiton Park. There will be morning tea compliments of Western Water followed by a BBQ. Further details TBA Bluebox Flat is a beautiful riverside flat not usually accessed by the public. We should see a wealth of wildflowers & birds. Directions: Enter Surbiton Park via Butlers Road in Exford. Melways Edition 35 (2008) Map 221 Ref C4 From Melton go south along Exford Road. Turn left (east) into Greigs Rd, up the hill toward Strathtulloh. Turn right (south)into Butlers Rd, through gate into Surbiton Park (Western Water Treatment Plant) Historical notes: Attached is a description of this stretch of the Werribee River & the adjacent grassland, written by famed naturalist & member of the Pinkerton family, A J Campbell in the 1880's "And, how beautiful were the plains in their delightful primitive state. There were acres upon acres, far-folded, of waving purplish-brown, so called, Kangaroo grass and other succulent herbage, brightened in Spring-time with yellow “butter-cups” and big “batchelor-button” flowers, and variegated with “blue-bells” and native scarlet runners (Kennedya), bush peas (Pultenoea) and a host of other kinds. Gnarled and bulky Red-gums brooded over the water tracks and ancient “soaks” or swamps. Between plains and forest were the ever sighing she oaks (Casuarina) singly or in groups. And, on the forest fringe, yellow box and other fine foliaged Gums sheltered Golden Wattles and many native garden-like plants- climbing clematis, purple coral-pea, or sarsaparilla While the virgin valley of the Werribee was a perfect picture with here and there bluish-leafed and umbrageous “red box” Eucalypt. Bushy blackwoods stood amongst the red-gums which protected banks bordered with blue-berried Hymenanthera and scented tea-tree Leptospermum) and Callistemons with yellowish bottle-brush flowers and other pleasant plants reflected in the placid pools of water. These pools were the home of fine fish. Although some were so called “black” their flesh was as “white” as snow; eels were numerous too and the delicate “Cucumber fish” skipped the surface of the stream, in summer, after flies." |