Wilsons Promontory: Lilly Pilly Gully

Wilson's Promontory has an unusual ecosystem that more closely resembles that of Tasmania than that of mainland Australia. One of the walks that showcases many of the ecosystems of Wilson's Prom is the Lilly Pilly Gully walk which, in addition to being a beautiful walk, is REALLY fun to say. Lilly Pilly Gully... Lilly Pilly Gully. Ok. Enough of that. A Lilly Pilly is an evergreen tree that grows in temperate rainforests. It is characterized by shiny, dark green leaves and light colored berries. It is also a popular ornamental in Australia and even parts of the US. But enough about the plants... you want to see pictures!

The nature walk starts above the gully in an open wooded area. Here scrubby trees mixed with grass trees that bloomed after the last fire:


A burnt gum tree exuded red sap that looked frighteningly like it was bleeding:


Further along the trail we got into a sclerophyll forest with immense trees. We found a hollow tree big enough to be a small cottage!


Then the trail turned to a boardwalk and we were in gully itself:


The tree behind Ian is the Lilly Pilly:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This Lilly Pilly Gully walk was really amazing. We walked only about 2 or 2.5 kilometers and did go through 3 types of very distinct and different forest types.
First was very dry land filled with scrub and grass trees. They only bloom after fires and the area did burn last year, so the piece Nic is holding is a part of the seed pod. My understanding is, that seeds will only open after the next fire.
Second type of forest was an eucalyptus forest, with tall treas and a lot of small plants growing under them.It is very airy and nice smelling forest.
And finally we came down to the gully, crossed the brook, and entered the dinosaurs domain (I am still surprised that we did not met any): dark, damp and filled with big fern trees and beautiful Lilly Pilly trees.
Olga

Tina in CT said...

Are there dangerous "critters" in any of these places?

olga vladimirsky said...

Tina,
the list of dangerous critters is way to long for me to remember. We were lucky enough not to meet any.
Olga