Land Rover Owners Club of Australia : Sydney Branch

Regent Honeyeater Habitat Project
Glen Davis NSW 10th to 12th August 2001

Written by Robert Kelly.

Trip Leader: Noel Lonergan: Disco and trailer
Participants: Mervyn Vessey:Isuzu powered County 110 and trailer
Robert Kelly: Holden powered Series III 109 and trailer

The meeting place was the Badgers Flat native plant nursery at Breakfast Creek, some distance into the boondocks off the road between Rylestone and Bylong and about 350 kilometres from home. Told I was doing the report for arriving last, I agreed. What else could I do! I was glad after a 4.45 am breakfast, to be invited into Mike & Sue's mud brick house for a cup to tea and some toast made on the fire. The three of us have enjoyed their hospitality before.

I had travelled north from Newcastle through the Hunter Valley to Sandy Hollow, turning south there towards Rylestone. Noel & Mervyn had left Sydney the night before, crossing the Blue Mountains via the Great Western Highway. Our sleeping accommodation for the weekend was to be at the shearers house on Brymair, a sheep station about one hour away from the nursery.

After loading up, we spent Friday delivering and unloading seedlings on two properties, "Aprils" & "Kurrajong". I can now reassure members that the regent honeyeater is a bird and it whistles. Furthermore, it perches in river oak trees and entices humans to emit funny staccato whistles in an effort to communicate with it! I reckon I could have talked to it too, but my lips and throat were too dry.

After work, we cleaned up, ate and relaxed in front of an excellent fire - Mervyn prepared a slide show on his laptop computer for the Saturday night dinner. For Noel & I, a couple of excellent bottles of Tooheys Old mellowed out the evening. Noel was to leave early in the morning to return to his Census duties in Sydney, so we made our farewells before retiring for the night.

Was it cold on Saturday morning! The big 3.9L Isuzu diesel in Mervyn's County was most reluctant to fire up, and while my petrol eater was a bit quicker, the oil pickup wasn't. Our job for the weekend was to water the 3,000 odd seedlings on the steeper sections using water tanks and gravity hoses carried in our trailers. We impressed the greenies with our skills and our Landies' capabilities on steep slopes. Their horror turned into acceptance of what can be done with a well driven four wheel drive. Meanwhile Mervyn & I had fun, traversing deeply ripped lines, dodging boulders, bushes and trees without harming them or the Landies.

LROC was thanked for its support at the dinner put on for the volunteers by the local community on Saturday night. Mervyn's slideshow worked well. More watering on Sunday, and by now the greenies were comfortable that we could handle the task without destroying the terrain. Some even referred affectionately to our trucks! At day's end I parted company with Mervyn at Glen Alice and headed for Newcastle. The 350 k trip over the mountains and down the valley took just on 4 _ hours in the Series III. And it was fun.