27/10/2026
🌸 A sea of wildflowers in the Howqua Hills with Delatite Landcare 🌸
Last week, 12 wildflower lovers joined local ecologist Sue Ablitt for a native wildflower walk around Dungeon Gully in Boorolite. We began in herb-rich foothill country on private land, followed the riparian forest along Dungeon Gully Creek, then climbed into the Grassy Dry Forest of the Mansfield State Forest. As John Gras from Delatite Landcare Group put it, “It’s a place where the pulse elevates, and that’s not just because of the climb.”
The day turned up a wonderful mix: milkmaids, chocolate lilies, four kinds of greenhood, bird-orchids, wax-lips (including a few rare pure white ones), musk caps, and four species of sun-orchid in flower. Not bad for so early in the season!
Walks like this are about more than a lovely day out. Every flower we identify and photograph is a piece of information about the health of our local landscape. When those sightings go onto iNaturalist, they become citizen science that ecologists, land managers and our whole community can use. Over time, these records show how our native plants are coping with changing seasons and drier conditions, which helps us look after the landscape and get ready for future droughts together.
📲 You don’t need to have been on the walk to help! If you spot wildflowers or other native plants while you’re out and about this spring, snap a photo and post it to iNaturalist. It’s free and easy, and the iNat community will even help you work out what you’ve found. Keep an eye on this page for more citizen science events coming up soon.
A big thank you to Sue Ablitt for sharing her knowledge so patiently and generously, and to John Gras for his write-up and photos 📸
This project is supported by FRRR, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry FRRR
