Inverleigh Nature Conservation Reserve

This reserve, originally known as the Inverleigh Common is an area of 1050 hectares, bisected by the Inverleigh Teesdale Road. It is now managed by Parks Victoria, with support from the Friends Group.

Acacia paradoxa, or Hedge Wattle has steadily taken over large parts of this grassy woodland area. Over the last few years amounts of money have been made available try to reduce the worst areas, where it has become impenetrable in parts. The original was planted as hedging material by our early settlers and rather like gorze has since become a problem.

Mulching has been proven effective and earlier this month two red mulching machines spent two weeks mulching thickets along Common Road. They were able to clear an area of approximately 50 metres depth north of the fire break stretching from the entrance near the Golf Club to the Inverleigh Teesdale Road, as well as going over an earlier area of regrowth. It was exciting to watch them driving over the large bushes and reducing them to a thin layer of mulch with a clear view of trees, which had been invisible to all but the kangaroos.

Luanne Thornton

Gray’s Garden – have you visited?

Whether you visit for a picnic, stroll by with your dog or fly past on a bicycle when late for school, this lovely garden on the Leigh River is a delight. The Inverleigh Historical Society calendar image for July is of Gray’s Garden, taken by Bronwyn Price.

Forward planning prior to the construction of Federation Bridge in 2001, the Inverleigh Progress Association formed an Open Space Committee, to plan and gain permission for the paths and open space, created by the installation of a safe Leigh River crossing. Previous generations had tippytoed over Savage’s Log but with new house estates being built off Common Road, a pedestrian bridge was necessary. Alan and Joy Gray were part of this committee and shared in the vision of a community space coming with the new infrastructure.

The first improvement was the planting of the trees down the side of the unused extension of Newman Street, along the Vicar’s Paddock boundary (where the Church of England vicar kept his horse and house cow). This plantation was to encourage residents to move to the bridge and is now a fine stand of trees, and especially pleasing is the visual lines created with the contrasting bark of the trees.

Alan and Joy had the idea of creating a new garden and it became their special project. Alan had always kept a native garden at home and had grown and sold plants to a native nursery. They wanted to show that a native garden could be pretty and encourage birdlife to the area. Of course, it was a lot of hard manual work and trial and error to see what would survive. Over the twenty years of floods, drought and the ‘despicable’ rabbits, it has required constant renovation and repair. The first flood removed the lower area, the long drought required years of carting water and mulch to keep the plants alive and sadly the flood last October did more damage, especially to the correas. Successful plantings have been the banksias, grevilleas and more recently the kangaroo paws. Floods leave behind a weed problem and lots of rubbish.

Joy mentioned that when she is working in the garden you meet every dog, talk to visitors and the children riding past have just one comment “whatcha doin”. Currently Alan propagates all the new plantings, and he said “natives have a short life to cope with burning and drought, they produce seeds to keep the species growing”.

Alan and Joy are grateful for the assistance they have received from local community groups in the past with plants and rubbish removal. Now in their more mature years they would appreciate physical help from community members to keep the garden in good shape. To Joy and Alan, for all the hard work over twenty years we say “thank you”.

The Inverleigh Historical Society meets on 4th Wednesday at the Public Hall at 2pm and is currently working on the calendar for 2024. Any suggestions for images would be most welcome on: inverleighhistsoc@gmail.com

Liz McDonald