Christmas 2022, lunch with the gecko’s & Long Neck Turtles

2022 has been quite tiring so we opted for a quiet Christmas eve and morning out on the property, just hanging with the wildlife.

It’s always thrilling to meet a new friend and that’s exactly what happened when I moved some wood off our benchtop to do a bit of cooking. Meet our friend Fred, the Fat-tailed Gecko! Their friend ran off straight away so I only got this one, grainy image to share.

I’m not really sure exactly what type it is but it’s possibly Underwoodisaurus milii as they are found in this area. I hope it enjoyed its Christmas nibbles as much as we did!

I tried to finish reading my book on the Sea Birds of the North Atlantic but it’s quite hard to get in the mood for that when you’re in a paddock in the central west of NSW. Eating all the cheese and biscuits was a lot easier to achieve 🙂

We see the long neck turtles quite regularly at Fox Hill Hollow but it was lovely to catch a couple swimming around and just enjoying life – well, at least I think that’s what they were doing, you never know of course.

Christmas for us is a time to play, relax, appreciate and be thankful for what we’ve got and that sure feels like a lot!

The frogs are in town

We were super excited to see both baby frogs and tadpoles enjoying the wetlands area of the dam yesterday. One of our goals for this area was for it to become a habitat for reptiles and other creatures and by the looks of it, that goal is being achieved!

Built it and they will come…

The grasses are growing and the dam is full

Tadpole

A sunny afternoon planting and frog watching

Solar Powered and not at all bothered by my shenanegans

Riparian Area Make-Over

The wet and wild weather has led to the toppling of a few trees. While some are fine (and even better) to leave to rot where they lay, others do need to be dealt with.

We had a big couple of days at the creek clearing up some of the recent damage and tackling the blackberries that keep popping up in patches around the disturbed earth. Our aim is to keep the creek flowing so pressure doesn’t build up behind the fallen logs and cause erosion.

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There was me thinking the chainsawing was the most dangerous job but somehow I managed (as usual) to come away with more injuries. Who on earth pulls out Blackberries with their bare hands anyway…

WAter is life – The Gulari River running through us

Milburn Creek marks Fox Hill Hollow’s boundary down one side and it is to that which any excess water from this land flows. We have been watching and mapping the water flow across this woodland and seeing how its presence or absence changes everything since we purchased the place in August 2014.

Our dam from September 2021 on one of the many rainy days.

Our branch of the creek starts properly at Garland at an elevation of 700 meters, meandering through farmland before it hits us at around 600 meters elevation. The creek then continues its journey down to Gulari, the Lachlan River at Wyangala Day where land drops to 400 meters before giving way to water.

Wiradjuri land sits nestled between three rivers. Gulari (Lachlan) which is ours, The Murrumbidgee (a Wiradjuri word still used today) and The Womboy (Macquarie). I know I am not from this land but I recognise it’s patterns and will to thrive. The bones on my father’s side come from farmland in the middle of England. On my mother’s side, I’m Celtic with bones born on the colder, wilder soils of Scotland, Wales and before that Ireland. Aub is similar in having half his ancestral story around middle England but unlike me, his other half is from further north, into Yorkshire and before that, Scandanavia. Both of us are grateful to have been able to adopt and be adopted by this land. We are trying to care for it like we’re family, and learn it’s true and full nature. Water is a key part of that process.

In terms of Wiradjuri culture, here’s a great introductory resource

The 2021 Box Gum Woodland project that is ongoing cited the dam as one of our focus areas and while we can’t control the in-flows to the dam so much, we can manage its run-off and downstream impacts and evaporation. We can also improve the habitat around the area, making it more inviting for the local amphibians, reptiles, flora and fauna.

My aim is to present the water report each year in December for that calendar year. This being the first though, I’ve covered the whole time we’ve been here up to the present day.