Pictures of the Mallee

Hornet wanted to see some photo of the Mallee so here are a few I have taken going to and from work. What looks like water is actually salt pans.

nice, love that landscape, thanks for the pics

Great pics Betty. Really captures the 'feel' of the mallee I think. I have been through the Hay plain a few times and a few other mallee areas in SA, it certainly has a unique 'feel' about it. One question though...where's all the cacti? Looks like prime cacti cultivation territory that does.

hornet wrote:

nice, love that landscape, thanks for the pics

There sure is something about it

trigonus wrote:

Great pics Betty. Really captures the 'feel' of the mallee I think. I have been through the Hay plain a few times and a few other mallee areas in SA, it certainly has a unique 'feel' about it. One question though...where's all the cacti? Looks like prime cacti cultivation territory that does

how right you are.................would be prime cultivation territory

... for Opuntia

Stutters wrote:

... for Opuntia

Or how about a few spikey blonde ones

Yeah,
went for a drive last weekend along the riverland through the mallee. There was some interesting clumps of cacti that had been planted and abandoned that had spread. Lots of optunia (didn't grab any of that )

Calycium they kinda hurt don't they

I have two stuck under my thumb nail at the moment

Did you get to visit any gardens on your travels?

No Betty - no gardens - just playgrounds for the children and a different outlook on life. The mallee is beautiful (peaceful and relaxing), but remote from Adelaide, halfway between you and I.

Still considering the River Murray plantation out near Manumn when it warms up. I've also heard there is a nice plantation out near Renmark somewhere to the north of the town.

I have heard there is an older guy who has a great garden in Renmark. Have been meaning to go over and see it, but time has always been the problem lol

I know a couple who also have a garden in Renmark and they use to sell a lot of cacti. My collection started from them, they use to visit Mildura markets. They have stopped selling now which is a shame. If you want I could try to find out where it is for you from this couple.

Thanks Betty,
That would be good - I'm not going there for while, but would enjoy the opportunity to see some other collections. Maybe even buy some plants.

Those are great photos of the mallee. As an inhabitant of southern victoria, it always amazes me to view the arid interior of the country... it's just such a stark contrast to what I'm used to. It's just breathtakingly beautiful, and really something to behold.

I am really enjoying my drive to work these days as I get away from looking grape vines everywhere. It is one thing I will not miss when I leave the area

I did not grow up here but grew up in South East SA so the rows and rows of grape vines are foreign to me even after 22 years of living here.

I don't know

I like the Mallee, but much of that flat stuff is artificial, I can barely imagine what once must have been there before the tractors tore down the dryland forests, flattened the soil and plowed in the wheat belt. I love the desert and I go up through that region about 3 times a year, I keep thinking that one day I will stop at one of those Mallee desert parks along the way either Hattah or Sunraisia and try to photograph some of those Mallee chooks but I never have a lot of time to waste when up that way.

I like it up north of the river, I have a few special places there where I prospect for plants, photos, whatever, once you get off the beaten track and away from the road amongst the dunes, there a special kind of peace out there and a special kind of silence, although silence is not quite the right word, often you can hear a breeze springing up from miles away over the dunes as it roars through the leaves of the trees giving you just enough time to climb the nearest dune, unbutton your shirt front and catch it full on, I get a special kind of feeling up there when I'm hiking around, it's difficult to put into words and probobly sounds a bit gay but it feels like I'm on a trail homeward or something like that.

The place is going downhill fast though, the numbers of ferral goats are a problem, its getting hard to find native fringed lillies and other plants and they've managed to displace even the emus and roos over the last few years, there is a place up there where I tried planting out a few special cacti but had to give up on that idea as the goats ended up eating them as well.

Nice pic Tula and description of the Mallee as you see it.

That tufty grass is so iconic of a healthy Mallee scrub.

I have heard tales of large tricho stands in the west of Vic. Will head out that way one day to search.

I did see a massive patch of trichos on an ABC program once, the propewrty was in SA just over the border from Vic so the stories may be true.........


i can dream cant i hahaha

Tula great photo, one day when I finish work early enough I will head up a track towards Hattah Parks and take some more pics as long as its dry don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere with no phone range

I should ask my friends other half to point me in the direction of the mallee chooks as he works for DSE. Their nests are huge............

You mentioned the river and its very low in some spots I took these as I left work last week.




You can see how low the river is by the steep banks on this last photo. First time I have ever seen sanbars in the middle of the river in 22 years I living up here.

That's bizzar, I saw a few pics not so long ago taken on the Murray at Mildura in 1917-18, this was said to have been their worst drought ever, There were cars and trucks and people having a picnic all on the dry bed of the river. With all the recent rain up in Broken hill I'm hoping the Greaater anabranch of the Darling finally got some, that one has been bone dry for the last 5 years, last November I walked through it again and there were all these huge fresh water muscles embedded in the dry riverbed, each one of them could have made a meal larger than the average person could eat.

There are spots around here where the "natural course" of the river has stopped flowing this winter. Of course there is still a flow in the deeper creeks that run nearby but she looks pretty low this year. LOL Betty, those pics look like the river here when its full during summer,i guess the river is alot wider downstream though