Native Grasses in Rural Cemeteries
The next informal guided botanical tour of our local rural cemeteries will take place in March 2012, dates TBA:
- Wollar Cemetery (left side of Barrigan St. heading towards Ulan)
- Ulan Cemetery (opposite the community centre)
- Ilford Cemetery (2km along Café’s Rd - first right turn past the Ilford Information Bay when heading south along the Castlereagh Hwy)
- Tannabutta Cemetery (20km south of Mudgee, left hand side of Castlereagh Hwy)
Choose one or visit all four, pre-register here and we'll be in touch!
Free to Watershed Landcare members ($10 for non-members, or join...).
Make sure you bring a hat, water, snacks/lunch, something to sit on, camera, notepad. Also... feel free to bring along any plants from your property you'd like identified.
Background...
A couple of years ago, some of your fellow Watershed Landcare members acted on their passion for rare and interesting native plants and kicked-started a project in some local rural cemeteries.
Strange place for a Landcare project you might ask?!
Well, rural cemeteries are a great place to see some of the biodiversity that is no longer widespread in the landscape. That's because rural cemeteries have missed out on 200 years of continuous grazing by cattle/sheep, ploughing, fertilizer and sowing of exotic seed.
The “Native Grasses in Rural Cemeteries” project involves four of our local rural cemeteries, Tannabutta, Ilford, Ulan and Wollar. It continues to be driven by Watershed members Jim Smith and Christine McRae and supported by Mid-Western Regional Council, and NSW Industry & Investment.
These four cemeteries are surveyed in Autumn and Spring each year. You can tag along for the day for an informal guided botanical tour with local district agronomist Jenene Kidston, and native grassland enthusiast (and grazier) Christine McRae to learn about the grasses, trees, shrubs and herbs found.
You can learn how to identify many species (some of which you may find on your own property), how and why they grow where they do and how they provide a sustainable perennial groundcover.
Give Thea a call on 0417 074 673 if you'd like to come.
This project is supported by Watershed Landcare, through funding from the Australian Government's Caring for our Country, Mid-Western Regional Council and the NSW Department of Primary Industries.
Read one of our Mudgee Guardian articles about the Cemeteries:
Fancy a picnic at a rural cemetery?
Stunning orchids found at Wollar
Or check out one of the attachments below...