At 9.30am, a cheerful group of twenty two walkers gathered at Katoa Close, North Narrabeen for an enjoyable exploration of the Warriewood Wetlands & their Mullet Creek tributary.
The Swamp Forest Walkway took us through the wetlands in which there were many Australasian waterhens as well as a heron, king parrots, lorikeets & many other birds we could hear but not see. It was interesting but disappointing to see dense growths of cockspur coral trees (erythrina crista-galli), a native of South America which have become invasive along waterways in coastal areas of New South Wales from Sydney to the Queensland border
After crossing Garden Street, we entered the Mullet Creek Irrawong Reserve on a shady forest track that took us past dense stands of cabbage tree palms along with tree ferns and eucalypts to the Irrawong Waterfall. This special area had originally been granted to Joseph Heydon in 1912 then gifted by his family to Pittwater Council in 2006.
After morning tea at the waterfall,
we returned to Garden Street then headed north east, skirting the 2005 “Shearwater Estate” residential development to re-enter the Warriewood Wetlands. Here there were numerous eastern water dragons and large ponds on Fern Creek.
We took a minor detour to a bike path and a substantial bridge across the creek to Bandicoot Close, Warriewood.
It was a short return on the track to the Angus Gordon Walkway which we followed across the wetlands with more birds (including wattle birds, a red browed finch and blue wrens), water lilies and groves of casuarinas. The circuit was completed at Katoa Reserve where three picnic shelters provided a pleasant location for lunch.
Most of the participants took the short drive to a North Narrabeen café where the joviality of the track continued.
It was a very satisfactory day with the opportunity to enjoy an area new to most of us. The reserves are a haven for native fauna in Sydney’s largest sand plain wetland and in the impressive remnant sub tropical forest.
Walkers: Ann D Annette Ell, Bill, Cherry, Christine G, Dennis. Diana, Drina, Elaine, Elizabeth, Gabriella, Habi, Howard, John S, Judy, Kas, Lyndy, Margaret L, Martin, Robyn Ma
Led by Barbara & David. Tail end Charlie was Kas. First Aiders were Lyndy & Elizabeth
Words: Barbara
Photos: Drina 2,5,7,8,9, Barbara.1,3,4,6,10,11