A walk through Ambergate Reserve, Busselton, Western Australia

pea flower growing over grass tree

In late October we visited with new friends who we had met at Mt Augustus in the Pilbara during our July trip.  They only live about 45 minutes south of us. 

I had been wanting to visited Ambergate Reserve at Busselton and they were happy to come along for the bush walk. It was spring time and the area was ablaze with wildflowers along the four kilometre bush trail. I wonder if they realised what they were putting themselves in for  - it was spring, the wildflowers were fantastic,and I had my camera with me!

Only 9km from Busselton, Ambergate Reserve is a 75 hectare remnant of the southern Swan coastal plain woodland, much of which is now cleared.  The Reserve contains a wide variety of vegetation types and includes both natural and artificial wetland area.

 

To read more please click on "read more"!

 The woodlands are a mixture of banksia, jarrah and marri trees and over 360 plant species. In 1987 the Shire of Busselton appointed the Busselton Naturalists Club as managers of the Ambergate Reserve.

Velleia

 

Located on the four corners of the Queen Elizabeth Avenue and Doyle Road crossroads, the 4km walk trail commences at an information shelter at the carpark where you can pick up a brochure. Visitors are asked to walk through a "boot bath" before starting the walk. This prevents the spread of jarrah dieback fungus.  Each of the four sections can be walked individually. Identification plaques along the way will help you with some plant identification. After our walk we had a picnic near the carpark, but if you intend to do this please bring your own chairs as there are no picnic facilities.

The Ambergate area was one of the Group Settlement Scheme areas during the 1920s, and named Ambergate by the early settlers.

There are a huge variety of wildflower species in this small patch of bushland, some of which you can see below .....

One of the creeping pea flowers -
 

Almost "fluro" green kangaroos paws. There are a number of different varieties of kangaroo paws, all different colours, but I had never seen one quite this colour before. Really stunning.

Pixie mops

One of the Coneflower varieties

One of the spider orchid family.

There are textures too.... grass tree - the red in the bottom corner is the inside of a grass tree. Just above it is the Semaphore Sedge.

Our friend showed us how as children they used to "pop" these seed heads....a bit like popping corn....

It was wonderful to go to Ambergate with our new friends for a few hours of wildflower bliss (for me at least) and catching up over our picnic afterwards. Thanks guys for your extreme patience!



Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed this little walk through Ambergate. If you live in the south west you should visit next spring.  Just be careful of snakes....although we didn't see any, they do live in this bush area.

I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. Have a wonderful week.

Common Milkwort

I am linking up to Mosaic Monday, Our World Tuesday, Wednesday Around the World, Travel Photo Thursday, and What's It Wednesday.  Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

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