Mt Macedon Crossing

		Mt Macedon crossing 26Oct2010 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Most of these pictures are by Hubert Weisrock – with thanks. We crossed the mountain together on Tuesday 26 October 2010.

I crossed Mt Macedon almost weekly since relocating to Australia in September 2008. However, in recent times that declined to monthly crossings faced with the cold wet muddy wintry conditions. But I’m back on track to maintain my weekly schedule.

Cannie Ridge Pottery Canisters

I purchased this lovely set of Cannie Ridge Pottery canisters a little while ago. However, I was only able to find some scant historic details about the pottery where they were made. The canisters are stamped: Harcourt Vic Cannie Ridge Pottery Made in Australia.

I contacted Bendigo Pottery (Australia’s oldest working pottery) for historical information, and they replied as follows:

Cannie Ridge Pottery was started by Allan and Mary Letts with son Gary in the mid 1970s. According to our records Allan was born in 1921 and worked at Bendigo Pottery prior to starting Cannie Ridge. The records we have show A Letts here 1971-1974 and an A Letts here 1942-1950. We have some gaps in our records 1950s and 1960s as Bendigo Pottery was owned by partly by Martin Stoneware and then Humes Pipes. Cannie Ridge continued until around 1990, not sure of the exact date. Apparently they had up to 16 employees in busiest time.

A botanical day in Woodend

		Botanical Walk Activity VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Pictures by Hubert Weisrock with thanks.

Yesterday morning the Friends of Hanging Rock gathered for the annual Botanical Walk Activity. We enjoyed a sparkling spring day. The reserve boasts the following flora:

Common Name Silver Wattle Black Wattle Blackwood Bidgee-widgee Sheep's Burr Trailing Ground-berry Common Wheat-Grass Sweet Vemal-grass Drooping Mistletoe Pale Vanilla Lily Prickly Woodruff Necklace Fern Silver Banksia Creeping Bossiaea Bulbine Lily Milkmaids Sweet Bursaria Shiny Cassinia Centaury Rock Fern Spear Thistle Australian Clematis Native Convolvulus Crassula Rough Tree-fern Austral Bear's Ear Tiny Flat-sedge Tree Lucerne Wallaby Grass Narrow-leaf Bitter Pea Black-anther Flax Lilly Tasman Flax Lilly Chocolate Lily Grey Parrot Pea Leopard Orchid Tall Sundew Pale Sundew Common Spike Rush Prickfoot Messmate Swamp Gum Snow Gum Narrow-leaf Peppermint Candlebark Gum Manna Gum Cherry Ballart Common Raspwort Cranes-bill Geranium Twining Glycine Raspwort Raspwort Purple Coral Pea Bats-wing Fern Hairy Pennywort Stinking Pennywort Pennywort sp. Tree Violet Small St. Johns Wort Yellow Star Joint-leaf Rush Rush Rushes Prickly Tea-tree Wattle Mat-rush Woodrush Weeping Grass White Purslane Onion Orchid Water Blinks Creeping Mistletoe Water Milfoil Mush Daisy-bush Snow Daisy-bush Broad-leaf Stinkweed Yellow Wood-sorrel Small Riceflower Ribwort Variable Ribwort Handsome Flat Pea Tussock Grass Tussock Grass Mother Shield Fem Hazel Pomaderris Magic Mushroom Large-leafed Bush Pea Bracken (Tall Greenhood) Orchid Australian Buttercup Small-leaf Bramble White Elderberry Common Bog-rush Cotton Fireweed Prickly Starwort Spear Grass Kangaroo Grass Bulrush Tall Bluebell Slender Speedwell Native Violet

Botanical Name Acacia dealbata A. mearnsii A. melanoxylon Acaena anserinfolia A. echinata Acrotriche prostrata Adiantum aethiopicum Anthoxanthum odoratum Amyema pendulum Arthropodium milleflorum. Asperula scoparia Asplenium flabellifolium Banksia marginata Bossiaea prostrata Bulbine bulbosa Burchardia umbellata Bursaria spinosa Casssinia longifolia Centaurium. sp. Cheilanthus austrotenuifolius Cirsium vulgare Clematis aristata Convolvulus sp. Crassula sp. Cyathea australis Cymbonotus preissianus Cyperus tenellus Cytisus prolifera Danthonia sp. Daviesa virgata Dianella revoluta D. tasmanica Dichopogon strictus Dillwynia cinerascens Diuris maculata Drosera auriculata D. peltata Eleocharis acuta Eryngium vesiculosum E. obliqua E. ovata E. pauciflora ssp.pauciflora E. radiata E. rubida E. viminalis Exocarpus cupressiformis Genocarpus tetrogynus Geranium solanderi Glycine clandestina Gonocarpus tetragynus Haloragis heterophylla Hardenbergia violacea Histiopteris incisa Hydrocotyle hirta H. laxiflora H. sibthoripioides Hymenanthera dentata Hypericum gramineum Hypoxis glabella J. holoschoenus J. subsecundus Juncus spp. Leptospermum juniperinum. Lomandra filiformis Luzula flaccidus Microlaeana stipoides Montia australasica Microtis uniflora M. fontana Muellerina eucalyptoides Myriophyllum propinquum Olearia argophylla O. lirata Opercularia ovata Oxalis comiculata sens. lat. Pimelia humilus Plantago sp. P. varia Platylobium formosum Poa labillardieri Poa sp. Polysticum proliferum Pomaderris aspera Psilocybe sp. Pultenaea daphnoides Pteridium esculentum Pterostylis sp. Ranunculus lappaceus R. parvifolius Sambucus gaudichaudiana Schoenus apogon Senecio quadridentatus Stellaria pungens Stipa sp. Themeda australis Typha sp. Wahlenbergia stricta Veronica gracilis Viola hederacea

In the afternoon, we visited the Flint Hill estate’s Open Day in Romsey Road, Woodend that’s owned by the doyen of Australian industry Sir Roderick Howard Carnegie AC.

Flint Hill's grand vision was started in 1920 by Harold Brookes, a prominent business man, and has matured into a great woodland garden. Three gardeners tend the leafy woodland of huge old oaks, birches and conifers, under planted with rhododendrons, azaleas and bluebells, fringes the formal lawns and flower beds near the rose and wisteria-clad house. Winding woodland paths beckon the visitor to explore the depths of the garden and a series of linked ponds and streams adds the refreshing sound of trickling water to the songs of myriad birds.