The last day of December and 2022 reached 37°C, a warm day to conclude what can only be described as a chaotic year, weather and event wise. The warm weather bringing out the reptiles both large and small, all very beautiful.
We find time to work on our veggie garden, it’s so important to provide us fresh greens and herbs, which don’t fare well over the great distances they need to travel to get to us.
The wildlife cameras have been put into action with guest numbers down, giving us good opportunities to capture the more elusive creatures who visit our base.
We explore more of the escarpment along the Microwave Track looking for Bothriembryon sp and Pleuoxia sp, land snails of interest to WA museum , and we find them. The vista from the escarpment never disappoints.
With more free time we can photograph and collate the artificial watering points on the Roe Plain and Hamilton Plateau, a number of them support tadpoles in advanced stages of development, we suspect they are Wheatbelt Frog, Neobatrachus kunapalari. Roe Plain consists of calcareous sand deposited by marine processes as the sea retreated. The area is a broad flat plain with elevations of 5 – 10 m. At the western end of the Plain, and in places along the coast, extensive dune fields, have developed. In places this sand has been blown up into sand dunes of 80 m elevation. Calcrete, or correctly known as Roe Calcarenite is an unlithified to friable lime sand, rich in conspicuous large macrofossils. Source: June 2006 Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 53(3) link is here
We also did some further exploration along the escarpment, near Damper Flat and Roe Plain, photographing old watering points, rock holes and rock shelters. Most notable of these were Burnabbie Rockhole (N-904), and the nearby Burnabbie Rockshelter (N-305), we think tagged by Cave Exploration Group (South Australia) Incorporated (CEGSA) There was also a historical weir constructed above the rockhole. The weir is described in the 1997 Doug Watkins & Roger Jaensch report to the Dept. CALM – Wetlands of the Nullarbor and Hampton Bioregions as “Linesman’s Camp Dam” (Photograph 4 pg. 17 of same report). See: https://library.dbca.wa.gov.au/static/FullTextFiles/701030.pdf There was time to also find the below ground well (Cistern) at the Burnabbie ruins. The vista from the escarpment overlooking Damper Flat was special. At this point we find only one specimen of Bothriembryon sp but plenty of Pleuoxia sp.
We have time to start creating a photographic catalogue of dolines and caves in our local area, the Cocklebiddy Cave is one such cave, a large cave, which has information boards but we find many that are just small holes in the ground. As we roam the bluebush we spot our emu family friends. Dolines are craters, depressions, they are not sink holes.
Our Kanidal beach survey this week provided an opportunity to explore behind the foredunes and wander onto the calcrete. It’s a totally different environment to the beach and dunes, it is hard pan surface and tortured limestone outcrops, this ancient sea bed is an interesting geological feature. We find the old Limestone track, which traverses the calcrete and check its state at various points along Kanidal Beach, it’s now on our list of explore next.
The temperate seagrass meadows are still very productive and the western end of Kanidal beach, usually a sandy beach is now an expanse of deep decomposing seagrass.
Another week has flown by and we finish it off by walking the Seaview and Horse Paddock tracks undertaking some track maintenance, then after dinner we take our guests up to the Sunset Lookout. Cloud streaming off the Southern ocean over the sandy landscape at sunset makes many opportunities to take nice photos.
