- 3 months ago
Part 1 Day 2-4 Off Geraldton
To Mullewa and a wander in the flowers on the hillside lookout. In town a visit to one of the many churches built by Monsignor John Hawes and pause for morning tea. Continuing to Pindar, travel via the lovely countryside to Tardun and another walk in the flowers. On to Canna’s old camp site for a delightful walk amongst the flowers. Across to the Yalgoo Morawa Road to see the beautiful Wreath Leschenaultia, a unique flower often growing in disturbed gravel. Afternoon break in Morawa, return to Geraldton
https://app.box.com/s/klp382lk4myuuc0q6wx2rd1vpfzg3d45
To Mullewa and a wander in the flowers on the hillside lookout. In town a visit to one of the many churches built by Monsignor John Hawes and pause for morning tea. Continuing to Pindar, travel via the lovely countryside to Tardun and another walk in the flowers. On to Canna’s old camp site for a delightful walk amongst the flowers. Across to the Yalgoo Morawa Road to see the beautiful Wreath Leschenaultia, a unique flower often growing in disturbed gravel. Afternoon break in Morawa, return to Geraldton
https://app.box.com/s/klp382lk4myuuc0q6wx2rd1vpfzg3d45
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FunTranscript
00:02:35Yeah, that's giving you a little bit more of an...
00:02:47No more of an ear.
00:02:49Yeah, that's probably...
00:02:51Okay, that's far enough back, I think.
00:02:54Okay, so I'm sorry.
00:02:56That may be the best we can do for the myrtle after having gone through that lovely patch before.
00:03:02He's just not going to let me get to the front, is he?
00:03:07Don't he?
00:03:08It's not what you wanted.
00:03:09Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted.
00:03:11All right, okay.
00:03:13Okay.
00:03:14Okay.
00:03:15Okay?
00:03:16Do you want to try from the door?
00:03:21Yep.
00:03:22That colour's better.
00:03:23Okay.
00:03:24Okay.
00:03:25Okay.
00:03:26If you're going to walk further down, just be careful it does.
00:03:27If you're going to walk further down, just be careful it does.
00:03:52No one needs to move further down.
00:03:53Okay, come on.
00:03:56If you've got to go through the door.
00:03:57See you later.
00:03:58Here you can see, don't forget to...
00:03:59If you have a tour in the next one.
00:04:00And you won't have to look for your name, just to watch it.
00:04:04You want to play with people?
00:04:05he- looked up.
00:04:07Where do Boom and under.
00:04:11Dr. del Scout來了?
00:04:13No one needs to know this inwick BI Jonas.
00:04:17But everybody's putting down.
00:04:19He gave away and under...
00:06:28Pretty good shot close up from the height of the front wall.
00:07:06anya.
00:07:07Sorry.
00:07:08Syringia.
00:07:09But a common name that's common in use here and Western Australia might be used for
00:07:13the same clink somewhere else.
00:07:22Yeah.
00:07:25And if we had a sudden burst of hot dry winds and hot days they could finish off quite quickly.
00:07:40It's just that we're having such a mild spring that we're getting the benefits.
00:07:47There you go, told ya, told ya, told ya.
00:07:51Yeah, yeah, you think that this would mean it?
00:07:55Yeah, yeah, it's just a little muck.
00:07:58193 genoa and over 570 species.
00:08:04Just daisies and annuals and perennial daisies.
00:08:11Just in Western Australia.
00:08:13193 genoa and 570 species.
00:08:19And it's actually more than the grasses.
00:08:22We have 152 genoa of grasses but we have over 650 species of grasses.
00:08:32In Western Australia we have 40 genoa of orchids and over 400 species of orchids.
00:08:44The spider orchids, of which we've seen a few already, 132 species of spider orchids.
00:08:55And somebody was talking about trigger plants yesterday.
00:08:59In Western Australia alone we have 206 species of trigger plants.
00:09:11With the world wide protease that includes the South African proteas.
00:09:16There's 79 genoa and 1700 species.
00:09:24Of which Australia has 46 genoa and 1100 species.
00:09:32The conservation park is an area of absolute gems when it comes to our annual everlastings.
00:09:51But the area is more famed for its geology.
00:09:58And it's one of Western Australia's most famous geological localities.
00:10:06And the rock strata in this period, in this area, were laid down during the Permian period some 250 million years ago.
00:10:21They include coal seams, limestones rich in marine fossils, and glacial deposits.
00:10:31I mentioned that briefly yesterday.
00:10:34The flat-topped hills that we've been seeing are a characteristic feature of the area.
00:10:41And they are remnants of the old Victoria Plateau, which has been deeply dissected by the Irwin River and its tributaries.
00:10:51So the best outcrops of Permian Rocks are along the north branch of the Irwin River.
00:10:58And the first coal discovery in Western Australia was here in 1846 by the Gregory Brothers.
00:11:08The coal has never been developed commercially because it was decided that the seams were of uneconomic thickness and grade.
00:11:19But there are several old exploratory seams to be seen near where we're having our morning tea today.
00:11:28And before we go to where we're having our morning tea, we're just going to go and have a quick look at one of the cliff faces.
00:11:36The fossil cliff formation, and you'll be able to see the coral, the limestone rich fossils, and the other ironstones that are more recent geological structures.
00:11:58So the glacial deposits are the oldest Permian rocks in the area, laid down when much of Australia was thick ice.
00:12:07And they carried large blocks of rocks, gouged out by the ice, and they deposited them some ten or even hundreds of miles from the original source.
00:12:20So when we leave coal scene, we're going out to the Uradela and Nangeti road, and the homesteads out there have evidence of glacial rocks on their property.
00:12:36So over 250 million years ago, it was glacial and ice, but certainly now we've had about 250 million years of pretty well undisturbed, no volcanoes, no major structures.
00:13:01So the plants that we've got here now have had that much time to evolve and to colonise, if you like, and diversify.
00:13:18The park has still a few sandalwood growing through it, and there are a couple of sandalwood trees that we can have a look at while we're down by the river, or in our next car parking stop.
00:13:32So if you want to see what a sandalwood looks like, please don't break it to smell it, because there is no smell until it's highly processed.
00:13:41I just asked that you don't break it, because if everybody our broke off a piece, we wouldn't have any sandalwood left.
00:13:48There are toilets at both our next stops, so once you go around this next corner, be prepared to be gobsmacked.
00:14:00This is your breakaway overflow caravan park up here, camping area.
00:14:05The pink everlastings are sort of fading off a little bit, but still looking great.
00:14:19Wow, there's the cliff I was talking about.
00:14:22Hey, look at all the lovely yellow pom-pom everlastings.
00:14:26Lots of jam waffle, yellow pom-poms, york gums.
00:14:51The toilets are long drops, so do make use of the hand sanitizer at the front of the coach.
00:15:02We've got some senna, or cassia, here as well. Senna is another legume, but it's not in the same sub-family as the wattles.
00:15:15I'm going to stop right there. Yeah, go on mate, just think about it.
00:15:22We've got some little pink everlastings out here on the river bend.
00:15:27You can see the seams of coal, you can see the limestone rich seams up there.
00:15:38I'll just stop by the toilet here, and there's a little pathway, just follow the pathway round to the left,
00:15:47and to the cliff face, and there's also a sandalwood directly in front of me.
00:15:51There's a sandalwood to the front of the coach, there's a sandalwood to the rear of the coach,
00:15:56and there's a needle pushed right on the left.
00:15:59There was hundreds of them a week ago.
00:16:17That's right.
00:16:26Okay.
00:16:36It must have been
00:20:19Still a bit of water across the boat, but we can paddle firm.
00:21:29flowers on a native hop bush, gardenia, and you've got lots of the acaciae cumonata or
00:21:40jam-wantle flowering. There's quite a few examples of mistletoes. I haven't seen anybody
00:21:46misbehaving under the mistletoe lately. Now when we are set out of the coach, we're only
00:21:54going to walk forward of the coach. Please don't come back this way. Please be aware
00:21:59that we are on a main road and there is traffic. So car, car, be aware of traffic on the road.
00:22:08But take as many photos as you want, get in amongst the flowers, sit down and have a selfie
00:22:14amongst the flowers if you wish. They really are quite lovely. There's quite a variety.
00:22:20The more you look, the more you see. And then as I say, Brian will have a nice cup of tea
00:22:27for us when we get there. See the little tiny yellow ones out there on the left there? This
00:22:35will be a nice spot. We'll stop here. So you've got pinks, you've got yellows, and you've got
00:22:42everlastings and you've got other things as well. Okay? Some of the early ones have started to go to seed,
00:22:50and then you've got others that are still just opening up. So you've got quite a range of different
00:22:58varieties to seed.
00:22:59Is this as cool as it gets?
00:23:09We'll see each other.
00:23:14To get this, we'll need to go to seed.
00:23:18And finally, the new leaf is spить.
00:23:21The whole leaf is spitting that you have in the last the way you could use, in the last
00:23:22part of the leaf is now.
00:23:24To understand the leaf is spitting that you have in.
00:23:25We also have removed the leaf is spitting that you have in.
00:23:27And then you've got a leaf.
00:23:29Then it is.
00:23:31And then the leaf is spitting that you have in the last and the leaf is
00:23:34And then you're taking on the leaf is based on.
00:23:36through hold on i'm here with you stay headstrong to make it through
00:23:47stay strong to make it through hold on i'm here with you stay headstrong to make it through
00:23:57is this what you wanted cause you don't know you're lost in smoke
00:24:17i found you in the garden drenched to your bones
00:24:27is this as cool as it gets facing the end in the garden
00:24:44i held you in my hands
00:24:53as you're falling
00:24:57oh
00:25:09because you're not looking at the irrigation
00:25:12everything has a penguin on the uh seasons and the season fairies
00:25:16and you you get seasons and you have to continue
00:25:20you've got this
00:25:27i'm here with you stay headstrong to make it
00:25:43I'm here with you
00:25:45Stay headstrong to make it through
00:25:52Stay strong to make it through
00:25:56Hold on, I'm here with you
00:25:59Stay headstrong to make it through
00:26:05I give a piece of my hand to everyone that's losing theirs
00:26:10I'm here with you
00:26:15I'm here with you
00:26:17Stay strong to make it through
00:26:23Hold on, I'm here with you
00:26:26Stay headstrong to make it through
00:26:33Stay strong to make it through
00:26:37Hold on, I'm here with you
00:26:40Stay headstrong to make it through
00:26:44Stay strong to make it through
00:26:50Hold on, I'm here with you
00:26:54Stay headstrong to make it through
00:26:58Stay headstrong to make it through
00:27:08Stay headstrong to make it through
00:27:19If you're a student, here's how you can save some of your time
00:27:22The easiest way to score top essay marks like this
00:27:25Is to just ask Grammarly to find
00:27:29The seeds are a lot easier to grow
00:27:32Because they
00:27:33Than the plant
00:27:34Yeah, because this plant is used to the soil
00:27:36Oh yes
00:27:37But the seed is not used to any soil
00:27:39Not yet, yes
00:27:40So if you then put like she said
00:27:41You know, in a growth thing
00:27:42And then nurture it
00:27:43With sand, wet sand
00:27:44Yeah
00:27:45And then pierce on the seed
00:27:46And pier to the sand
00:27:48And when you start with sand
00:27:50They go with the sand
00:27:51So
00:27:52There's some flowers on this
00:27:53There's some flowers on this
00:27:55Like we said
00:27:56My first question
00:27:57And one of the seeds
00:27:59Is this one of the seeds
00:28:00With a leaf
00:28:04Arrival
00:28:06Is this one of the seeds?
00:28:06Is the size of the seeds?
00:28:07Is this a seed?
00:28:08Oh, I'm I'm sorry
00:28:09At one point
00:28:10Are the seeds
00:28:13Car mixed nerve
00:28:16Is this one?
00:28:17My favorite오� adore
00:28:20Is this one of these seeds?
00:42:04So,
00:42:06I'll see you.
00:42:08I'll see you.
00:42:09I'll see you.
00:42:10I'll see you.
00:44:13The Radula subspecies stevmanii
00:44:43The Rade to the Woods
00:44:49The Rodys
00:44:52Flame the table
00:44:56The�olon
00:44:59Flip theak
00:45:02The le conson pulpe
00:45:12Ele AGNOP
00:45:43I'm here as well. We've got the syringe here. We've got the Everlastings. There was a grippily obliquid to stick that there.
00:46:10From the First World War, he lost his wife and daughter in the First World War. He came out here and he worked on the camp and the railway, building of the railway network through here.
00:46:25And he lived in a corrugated iron shed here and he had a dog in his little doghouse outside. But it's an interesting plaque about his history. It's well worth having a look at, taking a photo adjacent to the corrugated iron shed.
00:46:42There's another one I know where there is.
00:46:52So, you've got some pink haikia on the right there. That's the haikia invaginata.
00:46:58So, it's quarter to one. You want to do 15 minutes at the camp and then go on to lunch later.
00:47:09Yeah, yeah. Go here first.
00:47:10Lunch at once.
00:47:11I also had mellifowls down here. You don't see mellifowls very often, but we did actually see one cross the road once.
00:47:18What about this? Look at us through here. Look at the colours out here. Beautiful pinks and on the right hand side there's a couple of grassleaf haikias up this way as well.
00:47:32We've got Murchison Snow, which is a gudenia. Gudenia. And they've got the shiny little pyrus firma bright yellow flowers with a real sheen to them.
00:47:49So, you can wander around and have a look. Don't waste your time looking at a deer over the next shed.
00:47:55Yeah.
00:48:20I
00:52:59I hope you enjoyed that.
00:53:04And they're still all looking pretty good.
00:53:06There's a hot air.
00:53:07There's a hot air.
00:53:08There's a hot air.
00:53:09I get cross with people driving into them like these covans here.
00:53:13Yeah.
00:53:14Yeah.
00:53:20Yeah.
00:53:21Yeah.
00:53:22Yeah.
00:53:23Yeah.
00:53:24I suppose but yeah.
00:53:26Going around the back.
00:53:27Okay.
00:53:28Yeah.
00:53:29Pretty amazing.
00:53:41Pretty amazing here.
00:53:42It sort of gets better and better every year.
00:53:43Yeah.
00:53:44Look out here to the left as far as the eye can see.
00:54:00It's amazing.
00:54:01Look out here to the left as far as the eye can see.
00:54:02Yeah.
00:54:03It's amazing.
00:54:04Look at that.
00:54:05The eye can see.
00:54:06Yeah.
00:54:07It's amazing.
00:54:08Yeah.
00:54:09It's amazing.
00:54:10Yeah.
00:54:11That's amazing.
00:54:12I know.
00:54:13It's amazing.
00:54:14To see the pink, the white and the yellow all, you know, all in the same place adjacent to each other.
00:54:24So it's five past one now.
00:54:27Right.
00:54:29You're out there with all that lovely purple firebush there.
00:54:34It's got a quondong with some red fruit on it.
00:54:40Now in here there's an old school house where we're going to set up lunch and there's an original church.
00:54:52There's new toilets here just on the left.
00:54:55There's the old toilets over by the church.
00:55:10There's always a good house.
00:55:12How much is the house the house to win?
00:55:14Oh no, there's an old ways.
00:55:19Oh my god.
00:55:23And it's with all and great uniforms.
00:55:26That's the amazing bedroom,interesting the homeımız.
00:55:29This is good.
00:55:31ils.
00:55:32What's the bug?
00:55:34I think, dear friends, there's a crew.
00:57:06The yellow and the white, the big gold in it then.
00:57:09It's great.
00:58:10I've got the white flower of the
00:58:31I've made pop-pop everlasting.
00:58:42Now that's another one of the examples of the plants named after James.
00:58:50Keep watching, he doesn't stop.
00:58:55No trains today.
00:58:57Oh, this one.
00:58:59And the Murchison Snow is the one that's mixed in with the pinks and whites here.
00:59:06The rose even there.
00:59:20I love the silver contrast of this silky wedding bush here.
00:59:29That looks lovely, that silky wedding bush, doesn't it?
00:59:34These ones are exceptional.
00:59:41And then that one's the yellow version.
00:59:47That other one, someone stood on the side of it.
00:59:51There's always summer here.
00:59:52You can see it's faded.
00:59:53But that one's been like that for a couple of weeks.
00:59:54We were here and it hasn't changed much.
00:59:58It might have thickened up a wee bit actually.
01:00:00But it's funny how there's just this tree here.
01:00:07There's a little wee one down there.
01:00:09Yeah.
01:00:10Completely yellow.
01:00:11A little bit of myrtle.
01:00:12I don't know.
01:00:13We're all too busy like that.
01:00:16Myrtle now.
01:00:17Well, it's just, it's like you and me.
01:00:18We've got these big blitzing out here.
01:00:19We're just colours.
01:00:20We can do like that.
01:00:21It's just variations.
01:00:22Isn't it?
01:00:23I bet there's lots of them along here.
01:00:24Yeah.
01:00:25Yeah.
01:00:26Yeah.
01:00:27Yeah.
01:00:28Yeah.
01:00:29Yeah.
01:00:30Yeah.
01:00:31Yeah.
01:00:32Yeah.
01:00:33Yeah.
01:00:34Yeah.
01:00:35Yeah.
01:00:36Yeah.
01:00:37Yeah.
01:00:38Yeah.
01:00:39Yeah.
01:00:40Yeah.
01:00:41Yeah.
01:00:42Yeah.
01:00:43Yeah.
01:00:44Yeah.
01:00:45Yeah.
01:00:46Yeah.
01:00:47There and then we can come back down.
01:00:48Yeah.
01:00:49Yeah.
01:00:50It's a black salt flower.
01:01:05Yeah.
01:01:13It's a black salt flower.
01:01:15Yeah, right.
01:01:17New Zealand, I'm talking about.
01:01:1930 days, and they're on
01:01:21the left-hand side as we go.
01:01:23This side of the intersection.
01:01:25Before the intersection? Yeah.
01:01:27That's small.
01:01:29Ooh!
01:01:31It's the wedding bush of Arsena Carpus.
01:01:33Arsena Carpus,
01:01:35a bellow tennis.
01:01:37It's a nice,
01:01:39yeah, there's a nice Stylidium
01:01:41just up there a bit more.
01:01:43There's a couple out there.
01:01:49Where was it?
01:01:51Near the wedding bush.
01:01:53There you go. Stop here.
01:01:55You've got the wedding bush and you've got some Stylidium.
01:01:57We're making a quick stop.
01:02:11There she is.
01:02:13There's a nice,
01:02:14there's a nice little Olympics,
01:02:17resulting from a black 사랑.
01:02:19There's years now.
01:02:21A lady just goes to her anesthetists.
01:02:23There's a nice tools.
01:02:25There's a nice size absolutely.
01:02:27There's a nice design,
01:02:29that's one.
01:02:29So why do we call this?
01:02:31No, no?
01:02:33Why?
01:03:05I think this is too soft.
01:03:07It triggers the dhal to come over and snap the pollen on the insect that's visiting.
01:03:14Amazing.
01:03:16Get a nice stiff stick.
01:03:18Mine was too soft, I think.
01:03:22That looks good.
01:03:27Oh, I saw something come up.
01:03:28Oh, yeah, that's right.
01:03:29I saw something come up.
01:03:30Yeah, that's right, yeah.
01:03:31Here, look at me.
01:03:35What's the side of the intersection?
01:03:40No, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, this side of the intersection on the left.
01:03:45Oh, yeah.
01:03:49There they are.
01:03:53Yeah, they're the purple ones.
01:03:55Oh, there we are.
01:03:55Okay.
01:03:56Okay, so we've got the purple daisies here.
01:04:00These are brachycone.
01:04:01There's quite a few little patches of the purples.
01:04:03There we are.
01:04:09Try to take some time and plant it.
01:04:11You can't go.
01:04:12There's nothing worse.
01:04:15Oh, yeah.
01:04:15Oh, yeah.
01:04:15yeah
01:04:45Everlasting flowers
01:04:52Potetheka
01:05:08I'm going to walk around them
01:05:10and this is the church
01:05:13so take a walk, take a walk around
01:05:16you can't get in unfortunately
01:05:17they open it in the mornings
01:05:19but it doesn't really work with my program
01:05:21to come through this way in the morning
01:05:29and there's a little white box
01:05:31I'll just straighten up
01:05:32and there's some interesting gargoyles
01:05:35around on the roof line of this church
01:05:40one is meant to represent a bishop from Geraldton
01:05:44that Mr. Monsignor Horse did not get on with
01:05:48Catholic Church
01:05:49and they show Mary like that
01:05:51Mary like that
01:05:52using one door
01:06:01what are we getting?
01:06:11what's in there?
01:06:13inside
01:06:15they said
01:06:23so
01:06:29that's why it's set up
01:06:31I don't think John Balls, but he started out to see the Catholic situation, then she became a Catholic, which is very, I believe, which is part of the world, and the Anglican church would bring too much coffee.
01:06:58Not long after he became a Catholic, he had the urge to become a priest, and he had no one to ordain him, as in the sense, in the modern day church now, he was going to be ordained a priest, and he was sponsored by a bishop, but he had no bishop to sponsor him, so he played his own way with the help of family, and friends, because when he got the credentials, then eventually got ordained, and was looking for work,
01:07:25and the bishop of Geraldton was out in looking for priests to come to this vast and troubled place, and he took up the acceptance process, and then the bishop found that he was an architect, he started studying architecture at one stage.
01:07:43He reckons he got his first set of blocks at the age of five, and that's what prompted him to become an architect.
01:07:49So after duty and showing his credentials to the bishop of Geraldton, he came out to start working on the cathedral, and he got halfway through that, and another bishop came along, didn't like him, nor his design of the cathedral,
01:08:04and sent him out tomorrow, and sent him out tomorrow, that's the best way to do it. If you've got a priest, you don't like him, you're sending him to the cathedral, and I became a believer in the religion, which is what we're affectionately known as the Middle East, so that's what the bishop must think of me.
01:08:18And I did that, and it was a four-day trip for me, I'm getting to all of you, as it was when he did, so nearly a hundred years, except baby Jesus went missing some years ago,
01:08:30and they had to replace him with something more modern than the rest of the statues might indicate.
01:08:36He had two windows, at least, that we know about, that he designed. The one up there we don't know much about, there's no name on it, there's no identification.
01:08:47If you punch in the words, you come up with all sorts of pictures, but not like that one.
01:08:52But this one here was an original, and the one above here was an original, and over here, the other one,
01:09:00was done in two parts. The first half of that is the story of that as a depiction of Francis of Assisi, as I said, he had a thing to become a Franciscan,
01:09:13which he eventually did after he left here, telling him he was going on holidays, and he didn't come back from holidays.
01:09:30I'm getting a point now.
01:09:31Bye.
01:09:39Bye.
01:09:42Bye.
01:09:42Bye.
01:09:56Bye.
01:10:26B-W-O-N-G-A-N.
01:10:40Bwongan is a low vegetation type with really above shoulder height, very few trees but great
01:10:51diversity and that is I guess the equivalent to the South African felt lands and the Scottish
01:10:59heath lands but in Western Australia the Aborigines called it Kwongan, K-W-O-N-G-A-N.
01:11:09Lots of wattle flowing beautifully through there.
01:11:16Do you think that's representative of what the stock had to be moved through in the late
01:11:241800s?
01:11:26Oh yes, absolutely.
01:11:27Yeah.
01:11:28I can see more of the top at home.
01:11:33Fully laden.
01:11:38We are a biodiversity, we are a biodiversity hotspot and we have had a relatively unchanging
01:12:01climate for over 250 million years in which plants have been able to evolve.
01:12:13So Australia has 25,000 species of plants of which Western Australia has about 13 and in
01:12:23the South West corner which is X mouth to Aspen's not Perth to Margaret River, there are over
01:12:328,000 species and three quarters of these are not found anywhere else in the world.
01:12:40And you compare these figures to 8,000 or 9,000 species of plants for the whole of Europe.
01:12:50So a biodiversity hotspot is a variety of life on Earth with different plants and animals
01:12:59as well as micro-organisms such as fungi, bacteria and microscopic fauna.
01:13:09Myodiversity includes the genetic variations within the species and the diversity of the
01:13:16species themselves and the ecosystems and landscapes of which they are all part.
01:13:26A biodiversity hotspot generally means an area where there are many more flowering plants
01:13:34growing together in one place than in most other parts of the world.
01:13:41So biodiversity hotspots are mainly leaflands, quangums as I've mentioned, where the vegetation
01:13:49is head high or lower with small to medium shrubs and trees.
01:13:55But we must remember that diversity of plants is also found high in the rainforest, up to 40
01:14:04to 60 metres high, well out of the canopy and reach of people.
01:14:10But the south-west is isolated, with some of our hottest spots in Western Australia are Mount
01:14:24Azure, which we'll be going through on Friday, and two of the national parks south of Perth,
01:14:31the Stirling Range and the Fitzgerald River National Park.
01:14:37And the Fitzgerald River and Stirling Range National Park has more species of plant than in all of the British Isles.
01:14:48So question why more flowering plants growing there than anywhere else?
01:14:54And one reason is that we are isolated from the rest of Australia by the Indian Ocean on one side
01:15:02and vast deserts on the other.
01:15:05And plants have been able to grow on a local level without outside competition over these millions of years.
01:15:14We've got all that lovely myrrh from the kettle on here.
01:15:19We have also a relatively flat, unchanging landscape for the 250 million years.
01:15:28It's not been affected by our people such as erupting volcanoes, the glaciers have long gone,
01:15:37and there was no major climatic conditions to contend with.
01:15:44So we have a relatively unchanging environment, and the plants have adapted, diversified in competition
01:15:54and complementing each other.
01:15:58Another reason is our soils.
01:16:04We have a very nutrient-deficient soil.
01:16:08And no one species can dominate.
01:16:11So more species will develop when there is no domination.
01:16:17The landscape has had 250 million years of rainfall,
01:16:23washing the water down into the valleys or out into the ocean,
01:16:30and has left us with this highly deficient soil.
01:16:36If a soil is fertile, a few fast-growing plants will take over and dominate.
01:16:43Like when the soil lacks nutrients, survival is difficult,
01:16:48plants have to compete and complement each other to survive.
01:16:53The result is there's more room for many, many smaller plants to grow together.
01:17:00And in a biodiversity environment, when plants are needing to compete with each other to attract pollinators,
01:17:09one way they do this is by bright-coloured flowers.
01:17:14And this kaleidoscope of colourful flowers in our biodiversity hotspots
01:17:20attracts not only the pollinators, but tourists from all over the world.
01:17:28We're going to have 12 months to be here.