The Wonderful Wildflowers of Wetern Australia

There are over 12000 species of wildflowers across Western Australia making it a very popular state to visit in the spring. I have lived all over this big state and love the wildflower season. Here are some of them from the South West of the state.

This is the Blue Leschenaultia found around Perth. Lake Leschenaultia is named after this flower.

Here is the Donkey Orchid, a great favourite that is found all over the South West, hidden under shrubs and around the edges of small granite outcrops

The pretty Pink Enamel Orchid is found in the same places as the donkey orchid!

This is another orchid - the spider orchid or Calendia is its latin name also found throughout the South West.

...and the floral emblem for the State of Western Australia - the kangaroo paw, latin name Anigozantha manglesii! It is mainly found around the Perth region and surrounding districts

These yellow everlastings were taken at Wooleen Station in the Central Murchison, which is over 200kms north west of Paynes Find. Paynes Find is 420ks north of Perth.

There are acres of the white everlastings - Rhondanthe chlorcephala, sometimes with flower heads nearly as big as saucers, all over the Murchison. This bunch on the left was taken near Paynes Find. The picture above was taken at Landor Station on the banks of the Gascoyne River, a couple of hundred kms further north of the Murchison River and much further north of Paynes Find

Wildflowers of Western Austalia

Its my favourie time of the year, August-September and I am separated from my favourite state and all its wildfowers. Western Australia, where I spent most of my life and where I call home. Half of my family lives there, the other half here in Queensland and a continent separates us! This part of my blog I am portraying some more of my favourite wildflowers from my home state. This picture shows yellow everlastings at Thundelarra Station north of Paynes Find in the East Murchison. I used to live near here on Oudabunna Station and had the wildflowers at my back door

..one of the reasons why I get homesick - wildflower season

Some of the pictures have been taken from the history of the sturt pea re South Australian Government. The red blob on the map of Australia portrays where the sturt pea can be found, but as I write in my article, the sturt pea is found a lot further south in Western Australia in the Murchison region, and a lor further north in the Pilbara.

This is the bautiful swainsona formosa - sturt pea. The photograph to the right of the coloured drawing I took when travelling along the Great Northern Highway between Degrey Station where I had been, and Port Hedland near Strelley Station. I was on my way to the remote Warrawagine Station a few hundred kms further east. This beautiful wildflower is the state emblem for South Australia, and the two drawings were by Marion Westmacott. In Western Australia it is seen in the Pilbara region and down through to the Murchison. On Coodardy Station in the east Murchison is an outcrop of sandstone called Afghan Rock. In the spring this outcrop is surrounded by the sturt pea. On approaching the rock one spring for a visit, instead of seeing the expected red of the sturt pea, I saw only a sea of green. On the approach of the Wyllies jeep, the sea of green suddenly rose into the air - budgerigas by the hundreds had been feeding on the seed, which is a pea - when they were disturbed! The pea was named after Captain Charles Sturt, who saw it when exploring between Adelaide and the harsh Australian inland. Often it is called Sturt's Desert Pea or just Sturt Pea. The peas can be found in all states except Victoria and no doubt Tasmania, these states being too cold and frosty for the sturt pea's growth.

So we went bush my son Les and I. He was on afternoon shift at the Mt Tom Price mine and I was still desiring to 'kick dirt' as any good geographer would do in studyuing the area on my field trip from Curtin University. And being a male of course...he took the wheel of my Feroza with an outraged mother beside him. We headed out into the surrounding scrub on the rim of the Hamersly Range, literaly scrub bashing across rough, broken ground, pushing through grasping, squeaking, scratching trees and shrubs, and down stony, pebbly dry creek beds. Morning tea was had in the dry Bellary Creek bed. When I asked him why he went bush when he was outraged at the state of my four-wheeler when I landed at his home after a long, wet, slithery, muddy drive, he said he wanted to test the mettle of my little vehicle. Hmm! I noticed he never offered to use his Landcruiser. Might scratch it! Well, I saw the scrub of cassias, thorn bushes, wattles and gums, and the stony, broken ground that not even the kangaroos were interested in except for bounding through, investigated the outside of the Feroza thoroughly for external damage, and marvelled at this wide brown land I live in that can be so inhospitable.

For I am homesick....

PERTH WEATHER
Roiling black clouds,
Squalling winds
At gale force.
Slanted rain
Sliding along
Windows
Of bus and train.
Rivers in turmoil
White wave-topped
At confluence,
Brushed smooth
In lee
Of Kings Park,
Perth.
Wildflowers.
Jam, mustard, kerosene,
Bushes coming out.
Smokebush,
Bacon and Egg,
Wattle bushes defiant
Under the onslaught.
Banksia,
Grevillea,
Geraldton wax,
Twisting and dancing
In wind and rain.
Train sways
To and fro,
Buses splash
And slip.
Passing trucks
Leave waves.
Ocean heaving
Beyond its bounds.
Perth winter.