West of Camden, and on the other side of the ranges from where I was at Kanangra Walls (see earlier post), is Lake Burragarong, increased in size and permanence by Waragamba Dam.

The highlight was to see 4 female lyrebirds scuffing up the mulch. They were so well camouflaged the photos didn’t turn out.

Some unusual pinkish eucalypts , my bet is eucalyptus fasciculosa, dominated the very dense forest.

Apart from the lyrebirds, only this Eastern Yellow Robin was to be seen.

Michael Monaghan

I dropped in to check out John Macarthur’s second farm, at Camden, south west of Liverpool.  Sent home to the mother country for trial for shooting and wounding Lt Col  Patterson in a duel, Macarthur convinced the wise men of England that the worst punishment would be to give him a second massive grant of A1 land, on which he would have to break his back (well his convicts’ backs) establishing and grazing his prize merinos.  He had already had to break his convicts backs getting Elizabeth Farm at Parramatta up and running.

He named many things after his wife, no doubt to compensate for almost never being with her.

He has a surprising connection with my first fleet ancestors, in that Bligh sent his main support ship and marines, the Porpoise, to take my ancestors off Norfolk Island and then to Van Diemen’s Land. Unfortunately for Bligh, Macarthur chose that time to arrest him and to assert Bligh’s incompetence to rule.

The sheep are still Merino descendants, although of course, the merino story is a bit mythical because the spanish stock really saved the Australian sheep story.

Still, this is probably the most important collection of farm buildings in Australia. Certainly great farming land running down to the Nepean.

 

This is the westerly one, the one in which on a rare visit, Macarthur died.

The second cottage had a lovely view up the valley.

The farm buildings were added to over the years, but the oldest buildings are still there. The stables:

and the creamery:

They ran pigs for food, and all pigs were equal when it came to being moved into this area in the first photo; as a prelude to being moved into the place in the second photo, where they met their maker,  presumably George Orwell.  Then they were smoked in the place in the third photo.

 

The merinos were well cared for, and the present stock on the farm are directly descended from these sheep. They however were not all equal, and only some saw the place in the second photo.

All in all, a fascinating piece of our very colourful first decades as a British settlement, a time when it was great to be alive, at least for the handful who ran the place. I

t was certainly great to be alive if you were a pigeon, which were well fed up high on tree stumps wrapped with metal to keep the rats at bay. As it turned out it was a good strategy not to eat the food because the fatter you got the more likely you would be in the next pigeon pie.

 

Michael Monaghan

Why it is called “Flat Rock Reserve” is anyone’s guess.

Raintree Creek runs into the Fish River ,which is a sizeable river running north of Oberon towards Bathurst.

This Yellow Faced Honeyeater had great trouble disposing of this pernickety moth:

The Dollarbird chick made sure everyone knew it was hungry:

A pair of Willy Wagtails seemed to be having quite a discussion about something important. He probably didn’t get the colour matching in the nest right.

A Noisy Friar Bird was actually pretty quiet.

Hard to identify, but the top one is a male Satin Flycatcher; and the lower one is a Varied Sitella.  Both identifications thanks to a genius taxonomist friend.

And this one:

Finally a lovely Red Browed Finch:

Michael Monaghan

Kanangra Walls are over 130m high. We are over 1000m above sea level here, about 50 km south of Oberon, and 30 km on seriously pot-holed gravel south of Jenolan Caves. The high point of the road over the Great Dividing Range just near the Caves is 1365m. The low point of the road is the bottom of the potholes.

However, like in many hard to get to places, the forest is fantastic and the scale of the cliffs and the Kanangra Drop (the next photo) is breathtaking.

The main Sydney water supply, Lake Burragarong, is over between the second and third ranges, and entry into the area is prohibited. I went there later and it is subject of a separate post.

Spotted a couple of yet to be identified lizards:

 

Boyd’s Crossing, over a very bedraggled creek, provided a free camping ground in a grand forest. The alleged abundant fauna must have been on their rostered day off. Just a pair of Scarlet Robins and a Grey Fantail.

This is the female Robin:

And this the male:

And the Grey Fantail:

 

Michael Monaghan, accompanied by his trusty camera bag:

 

I like this photo.

 

MM

Chifley moved into this house, built in 1887, originally as a tenant to his wealthy Scottish Presbyterian (this is relevant) father-in-law, on marrying Elizabeth Mackenzie in 1914. His father in law subsequently transferred the title to Elizabeth in consideration of “love and affection”, and Chifley became joint owner on a nominal payment of 10 shillings to his wife.

They lived here in almost spartan conditions (hence the scottish presbyterian relevance) the whole of their lives – except of course Chifley was in Canberra a lot staying at the Kurrajong Hotel. They only stayed in the Lodge on rare special occasions when Elizabeth journeyed to Canberra. Chifley returned home generally once a fortnight.

Elizabeth was a keen seamstress and cook. Darryl John Kerrigan’s wife, Sal,  is presumably modelled on her.

 

Chifley, like Darryl, did add some extensions and a garage, but there is no sign of  jolly big gates.

They had only one or one set. The exception was radios, of which there were 4, strategically placed in the dining room, kitchen, front room and “study”. The study had a makeshift bookcase made out of a pianola player, and a very small table on which he worked.

He probably had to get special permission to have two suitcases, one for overseas travel and one for travelling to and from Canberra, the smaller one. When he became Prime Minister he was issued a small satchel for papers.

After Chifley died in 1951, the Prime Minister Robert Menzies visited to pass on his best wishes to his widow, and is said to have sat in this chair, one of just two, there also being a two seater couch.

The house was bequeathed to the Presbyterian Church and the Council bought it in 1972.

The house next door, 12 Bushby Street, was also bought and turned into a suitably modest visitor centre.

There is an exhibition in the visitor centre about the Great Strike of 1917. Chifley got sacked from the railway, he was the youngest first class engine driver in NSW, for supporting the strikers. He said later that he never would have become involved in politics if the NSW government had been more honest and reasonable in dealing with the issues. Ironically, his handling of the Communist-inspired coalminers strike on 1947 was a major contributor to his loss in 1949 to the resurgent Robert Menzies.

He suffered a major heart attack in late 1950 but returned to work , driving himself again, after several weeks convalescence. On 13 June, 1951, he apparently felt unwell and returned to his room at the Kurrajong rather than attend the Golden Jubilee celebrations at Parliament House. He suffered a fatal heart attack alone in his room.

Elizabeth died in 1962. She left behind two handbags, one her daily one; the other one for special occasion Ben bought in Piccadilly. It is one of two, the other owned by some monarch in England.

I thought it a very appropriate modest remembrance of a modest, but very notable, leader.

 

Michael Monaghan

This is the largest private cool climate garden in Australia, and one of the biggest in the world.  I wondered about the cool climate bit as I wandered about in 36 degrees.

It is very much a european built on classical lines with heavily stylised water features and plant beds. It is pretty amazing though, especially the water in an otherwise deadly dry environment.

The water was peppered with water lilies.

Most large plants, like rhododendrons, were not in flower. There were critters aplenty.

A pair of breeding Australasian Grebe were building a nest. Well, he was, and she was providing useful advice on to where leaves should be moved. I am sure the last picture shows him rolling his eyes.

 

Being an unusual creation, unusual visitors feature. Not sure how often you see Little Pied Cormorant at 1100m in the middle of arid grassland.

On the other hand, apparently European Goldfinch are often found around, well, european gardens.

Looking forward to checking out more natural bushland tomorrow.

 

Michael Monaghan

 

I thought I would capture multiple aspects of the glorious forest in the Orroral Valley with a fixed 50mm lens and a fixed position. It was a very hot cloudy day with a storm imminent.

This is the result:

Michael Monaghan

Nice day for it. Drove out to Murray’s Crossing on the Tidbinbilla Road running between the Cotter and Tidbinbilla, with two special guests. Rolled over the causeway across a low Paddy’s River (a tributary of the Cotter, which is a tributary of the Murrumbidgee) and checked out the forest trails. Lots of pines, but few real trees unfortunately.

Back to the picnic area, which is the only one of the three on the river which have been restored since the 2003 bushfire.

Lots of Silvereyes:

A baby white-browed scrubwren pottered about.

 

 

A water dragon sunned itself in the shade on a log.

Just as we were leaving the raucous squawk alerted us to a Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo.

 

 

Just like the other day, the highlight was back at home with my first ever sighting of a juvenile eastern koel. Last time it was the male Koel.

,

MM

 

The family of Pacific Black Ducks was relocated here a week ago. Mum and Dad with nine ducklings were, by a ranger , found wandering along Parkes Way. A few days ago there were only five ducklings; but today, alas, only three. A Sparrowhawk was seen yesterday trying to snatch one, so presumably birds of prey have succeeded over this time. At least the ones left are learning how to scratch on a log.

The highlight was the family of Red Rumped Parrots. First time I have seen them there, and first time I have seen them drinking, with dad guarding.

 This pelican had clearly not seen them before, and was having a “what on earth are you” moment.

As is fairly common there was a White-Faced Heron, some Royal Spoonbills and some Cattle Egret.

Unusually large numbers of White-Plumed Honeyeaters were frolicking

The pair of Dollarbirds were having a chat, probably about the fall in Wall Street. The juvenile is babbling on, and the adult looks alarmed.

There was also a Red Wattlebird, which of course, should really be called the “redwattle bird”.

Michael Monaghan

I felt like they were all keeping an eye on me today. There’s that bloke again!

 

These Pacific Black Ducklings weren’t here three days ago. The parents made sure they kept together, and well away from the White-faced Heron.

 

The Heron seemed to be catching enough fish to keep it occupied.

 

This Pelican certainly was.

 

There was an unusually large number of Silvereyes.

 

Also plenty of young grey fantails.

 

This took many shots to land (sic).

The Dollarbird sat in his usual place, over recent days anyway, and the Pied Cormorant looked a different one to a few days ago, much more colour on the neck and on the body.

 

Reed Warblers were also about.

Today’s puzzles are this one which looks I think like a very young Black-Faced Cuckoo-Shrike:

 

and this one which looks like a Striated Thornbill (it was certainly early enough to get the worm):

 

 

 

Michael Monaghan