Going bush in the wheatbelt

A large patch of bushland that still remains in the wheatbelt. Photo: Chris Curnow.

Recently, Chris Curnow travelled with members of WWF’s Healthy Bushland team to visit landholders who are preserving incredible patches of remnant bush in the wheatbelt region. It’s an area he cares about as you can see in this report. However, in addition to being the head honcho of a hands-on team Chris is also a remarkable photographer.

You can see more of his photos from the trip to the wheatbelt here.

Private land conservation continues to get people excited across Southwest Australia and, increasingly, the Australian Government feel it is important too. Landholders across the Western Australian wheatbelt are welcoming the growing advice of biodiversity extension professionals, like those from our own WWF Healthy Bushland team.

Mike Griffiths, Phil Lewis, Helena Mills and Brett Brenchley spend their days knocking on farm gates and striking up conversations with landholders, who are only too happy (when not seeding or harvesting) to show them round their patches of remnant bushlands.

After kicking the dirt and getting down on all fours to admire the intense diversity in the understorey of these rare and surviving woodlands and shrublands, these dedicated WWF staff head back to the kitchen table or the bonnet of the farmer’s ute. Once there they often pore over maps and discuss covenant arrangements and develop ideas for bush management activities that would, with a little bit of public investment, improve the bush’s condition.

While governments of the world try to bring years of climate crisis negotiations to a positive conclusion, Western Australian wheatbelt landholders like Rob and Beth Boase are already doing their bit for the natural world. They see themselves as stewards of the bush and preserve the habitat of rare plants such as the beautiful Hughan’s verticordia (Verticodia hughanii) with its dazzling red flowers on their farm.

Rob and Beth Boase with a rare Hughan's verticordia on their property. Photo Chris Curnow

Listed as Declared Rare Flora, this location hosts probably one of the largest known populations of Hughan’s verticordia remaining. Interestingly its probable location was deduced from air reconnaissance in the 1970s by Western Australian verticordia enthusiasts who had determined the unique soil-plant relationship needed for the plant and took to the air to spot the likely soil types that would host it.

Rob has taken the time to investigate the ages of the plants and by tediously counting growth rings has established some of the older gnarlier impressively prostrate individuals at up to 30-odd years old! Extraordinary!

The Boase’s worked hard to keep their bush and this population of verticordia, even taking time to work off-farm for four years just to get the money to effectively buy their bush back. Beth and Rob have been long time supporters of WWF’s wheatbelt programs.

While on the way to visit the Boase’s incredible bushland, we visited the Quarading Nature Reserve just out of Dowerin. The Shire has recently placed a perpetual Conservation Covenant over its patch of bush.

WWF’s staff, Mike Griffiths and Helena Mills, assisted the community with technical interpretation of the many amazing natural values of the large reserve and interpretive signs that are the result of their work are now in place.

Right now, in December, the reserve has a very healthy population of Christmas spiders and as we walked the narrow pathways through the open York gum woodlands or the denser she oak shrublands, we were constantly ducking and weaving through the hundreds and hundreds of their webs. Many a time we found ourselves inadvertently destroying their ‘Christmas hamper-collecting’ devices, pulling their sticky webs from our faces as we marvelled at prostrate foxtails in full bloom at our feet.

A Christmas spider catches a juicy bush fly. Photo: Chris Curnow

Foxtails still covered the ground at Quiridding Reserve. Photo: Chris Curnow

The brilliance of the foxtails was probably the main reason we were distracted from our web-dodging activities.

Earlier at another property near Quairading, the WWF landholder engagement team visited some barren flat top breakaway country . The conversation there was about the wedge-tailed eagle we’d just seen off the edge of the breakaway behind us. Then, Gene Stone, who owns the land, took us down into a drop-off where we discovered an ochre pit and signs of rare trapdoor spiders.

One thing is for certain, this may be a heavily farmed area but being in a biodiversity hotspot means there is never a dull moment when you visit the Wheatbelt.